Fraud Friday – Ophthalmologist Commits PPP Fraud While on Pretrial Release

September 17, 2021

Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

Fraud Friday – Ophthalmologist Commits PPP Fraud While on Pretrial Release

“Dr. Ameet Goyal was an experienced eye doctor who became blinded by greed and routinely defrauded patients who trusted him to heal their eyes,” says U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. “Already facing charges for defrauding patients and insurers of millions of dollars, Goyal committed a new fraud in applying for Paycheck Protection Program loans on behalf of two separate businesses and lying on the applications.”

In April 2020, Goyal allegedly applied for over $630k in PPP loans. April 21st, he applied for a PPP loan worth $358,700 for a business titled “Ameet Goyal”. He used his own social security number and email address for the initial loan. He applied for a $278,500 loan eight days later for a business named “Rye eye associates”. The Department of Justice press release states that both applications shared the same underlying payroll expense report, employees, and payroll costs.

He received the money from both loans in May 2020. The applications show that he falsely answered “no” when asked if he was facing any pending criminal charges. Ameet faces three additional charges of bank fraud, making false statements on a loan application, and making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the Government. These three charges related to the PPP fraud were committed on pretrial release.

Dr. Ameet Goyal was indicted in 2019 with charges of healthcare fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements relating to healthcare matters. It is alleged that the ophthalmologist would “[upcode]” more simple surgical procedures and claim they were complex medical procedures. He managed to attain at least $3.6 million in payments from this fraud scheme.

There are claims that he submitted fraudulent bills to private insurance companies, Medicare, and patients. The bills caused patients to pay thousands out of pocket, and he would allegedly initiate debt collection proceedings against patients who did not pay the full amount charged for procedures that never occurred.

Goyal pled guilty to all six charges earlier this week. His sentencing is set to take place in January 2022.

Source:
DOJ Press Release