Greedy Virginia gynaecologist, 70, jailed for unnecessary surgeries on 173 women including hysterectomies and tied fallopian tubes as part of massive $4.7million insurance fraud

A Virginia gynecologist has been found guilty of submitting false insurance claims after performing what authorities described as unnecessary surgeries on 173 women, including irreversible hysterectomies and tied fallopian tubes. 

Javaid Perwaiz, 70, has been convicted of 52 counts relating to his scheme to give women life-altering procedures they did not need as part of a massive $4.7 million insurance fraud. 

In many cases, Perwaiz would falsely tell his patients that they needed the surgeries to avoid cancer in order to convince them to agree to the procedures, authorities said. 

The Chesapeake doctor, who had practiced medicine for nearly four decades, could face up to 465 years in prison for his scheme to defraud health insurance programs. Sentencing is scheduled for March 31 next year. 

Javaid Perwaiz was convicted Monday of 52 counts related to his scheme to defraud health insurance programs by giving women life-altering hysterectomies and other surgeries they did not need.

'Dr Perwaiz preyed upon his trusting patients and committed horrible crimes to feed his greed,' said George Zachary Terwilliger, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

Federal prosecutors said that many of the procedures Perwaiz performed were unwanted, and that 173 women had come forward since his arrest to report similar experiences, including repetitive surgeries they never asked for. 

Prosecutors said he performed the surgeries 'for his own financial gain' and to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself and to give expensive gifts to his employees, according to The Virginian Pilot. 

They said Perwaiz spent more than $2.3 million on credit card purchases in the last ten years and bought a string of luxury cars including a Bentley, Ferrari, Mercedes and Jaguar.

The doctor collected over $2.4 million in insurance payments for unneeded procedures, prosecutors added.  

Margo Stone, a nurse and office administrator who had a romantic relationship with Perwaiz, told jurors the gifts she and her family received from the doctor was likely several hundred thousand dollars. 

Prosecutors said Perwaiz performed the surgeries 'for his own financial gain.' They said Perwaiz performed the surgeries to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself and to give expensive gifts to his employees

Several former patients said they still suffer complications, pain and anxiety as a result of the surgeries performed by Perwaiz. They said they had only consented to the procedures because they had trusted the doctor.

'Doctors are in positions of authority and trust and take an oath to do no harm to their patients,' said Karl Schumann, Acting Special Agent in charge of the FBI's Norfolk Field Office. 

'With unnecessary, invasive medical procedures, Dr. Perwaiz not only caused enduring complications, pain and anxiety to his patients, but he assaulted the most personal part of their lives and even robbed some of their future,' he continued.

Authorities said the doctor billed private and governmental insurers millions of dollars for irreversible hysterectomies and other procedures that were not medically necessary. 

Perwaiz would sometimes falsely tell his patients they needed the surgeries to avoid cancer, authorities said. He also billed insurers hundreds of thousands of dollars for diagnostic procedures he never performed, they added. 

Javaid Perwaiz once worked at these offices in Chesapeake, Virginia

Prosecutors also said Perwaiz falsified the records of pregnant patients so he could induce their labor early, prior to the recommended gestational age that minimizes risk to the mother and baby, to ensure he would be reimbursed for the deliveries.

The doctor also violated the 30-day waiting period Medicaid requires for elective sterilizations by submitting backdated forms, according to authorities.  

For those who have not been formally identified as victims by the FBI, the conviction has not given them closure, reports The Washington Post.

'I'm glad that he can't do it to anyone else,' said Karen Lane, 53, a patient who had her uterus and ovaries removed by Perwaiz when she was in her early 30s. 

Karen, who questions whether the surgery was necessary, added: 'But, I still feel left out, like he didn't get anything for what he did to me.' 

Perwaiz's lawyer, Lawrence Woodward Jr., had said last year that his client had received a flood of unsolicited emails from patients who described Perwaiz's 'fine qualities' and 'how he helped them.'

In 1996, Perwaiz was sentenced by a federal judge to five years probation and ordered to pay more than $100,000 in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of tax fraud. Prosecutors dropped four other counts in exchange for a guilty plea in that case.