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Feds: Man poses as doctor in Virginia, sees nearly 24 patients

Investigators say Vishal Patel used information about licensed physicians to pretend he was a doctor.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WVEC) -- The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said a man used information about licensed physicians to pose as a doctor on online employment applications to medical staffing companies.

Vishal J. Patel, 30, of Glen Allen, Va. was arrested in Kansas.

Investigators said that Patel claimed on applications that he was licensed to practice medicine in Virginia, creating and submitting false diplomas and certificates. They added he used registration and licensing numbers that belonged to licensed physicians. Patel supposedly gained access to physicians' information by posing as them when he contacted oversight agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Patel is accused of telling those agencies to change the physicians' licensing records so they were associated with him, then asking the agencies to mail him the altered records. Investigators said that Patel used those records in order to get medical staffing companies to hire him as an independent contractor. One place he worked was Stoneybrook Physicians in Newport News where he saw nearly two dozen patients before the clinic fired him because it couldn't verify his credentials.

Patel is charged with Wire Fraud, Furnishing False Information in a DEA Record, Mail Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years, along with a mandatory consecutive term of two years in prison, if he is convicted.

https://www.scribd.com/document/367625905/Vishal-Patel-Indictment

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