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Press Release

Dentist Sentenced

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of North Carolina
Medicaid fraud nets prison term, fine and restitution

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Sassan Bassiri, DDS, age 46, has been sentenced to five months in prison followed by five months home confinement, announced Ripley Rand, United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. 

Bassiri, of Pfafftown, North Carolina, practiced dentistry in King. His license to practice dentistry in North Carolina was revoked effective April 18, 2011.

Bassiri pleaded guilty on January 3, 2013, to three counts of health care fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the North Carolina State Medicaid program. The fraudulent conduct included billing Medicaid for cast metal dentures when less expensive dentures were actually provided, and billing Medicaid for extensive oral examinations when the patient actually received non-billable or previously-reimbursed services.

Bassiri was sentenced on May 3, 2013, by United States District Judge N. Carlton Tilley, Jr., in federal court in Greensboro, North Carolina. Bassiri was also ordered to pay a $10,000.00 fine and $68,795.65 in restitution to the Medicaid program. He will be on supervised release for two years after the conclusion of his sentence.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert Hamilton and Special Assistant United States Attorney and Assistant Attorney General Laura Lansford of the Medicaid Investigations Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office. The case was investigated by the North Carolina Medicaid Investigations Division.

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Updated March 19, 2015