Washington, D.C. – Today, a federal grand jury indicted a Virginia man, Mansour Salahmand, on numerous charges for pretending to be a licensed physician and stealing the names and identification numbers of doctors, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Patrick Doyle, Regional Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS - OIG), Chief Cathy L. Lanier, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Shawn A. Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Charles J. Willoughby, District of Columbia Inspector General.

Salahmand, 53, most recently of Sterling, Virginia, was charged in an eleven-count indictment with four counts of identity theft, three counts of unlawful use of another person’s DEA number in the dispensing of a controlled substance, and four counts of forgery.

According to the indictment, Salahmand was not a licensed physician and not authorized by the District of Columbia, Maryland, or the DEA to write prescriptions for controlled substances. Nonetheless, Salahmand tricked multiple mental health clinics into hiring him as a medical doctor, that is, a psychiatrist. Salahmand falsely told various clinics that certain doctors would be supervising him, when, in fact, the doctors had not agreed to do so. Once hired, Salahmand pretended to be a licensed doctor and allegedly forged four different doctors’ names and used their DEA authorization numbers without their permission to write prescriptions for controlled substances.

The indictment further alleges that Salahmand obtained the doctors’ names and DEA authorization numbers by working at some of the same clinics which had previously employed the doctors. Salahmand even created and used fake prescription pads with the names and DEA numbers of three of the four doctors without the doctors’ knowledge or permission. During the course of the fraud, from August 2004 to October 2006, Salahmand allegedly tricked more than seven mental health clinics into hiring him, and wrote over 150 prescriptions for Schedule II and Schedule IV controlled substances forging the names of the doctors.

If convicted of all counts at trial, Salahmand could face about 24 - 33 months under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.

In announcing the indictment, U.S. Attorney Taylor, Regional Special Agent in Charge Doyle, Chief Lanier, Special Agent in Charge Johnson, and Inspector General Willoughby praised Special Agent Tracy McFadden (HHS - OIG), Diversion Invesigators LaVerne L. Stevenson-Maye and Majorie E. Palmer-Nisby (DEA), Detective Samuel Woodson (MPD) and Criminal Investigator Sandra Adams (Medicaid Fraud Control Unit). In addition, they commended auditor Robert Jodoin, Legal Assistant April Peeler, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Virginia Cheatham, who is prosecuting the case.