SAVANNAH, GA: Edmund A. Booth, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced today that Rafael G. Razuri, a medical doctor of Savannah, Georgia, was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Chief U.S. District Judge William T. Moore, Jr., on his conviction for conspiracy to commit health care fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 371. Razuri, indicted by a federal Grand Jury in January, was sentenced to sixty (60) months imprisonment;
three (3) years of supervised release; and ordered to pay $1,830,157.77 in restitution. Razuri remains on bond and will self-report at a designated penal institution as determined by the Bureau of Prisons.

The indictment against Razuri arose out of a joint federal and state investigation into fraudulent billings to Medicare, Georgia Medicaid and private insurance companies for alleged physical therapy services provided to patients of Southside Medical and Rehabilitation Center, Savannah, Georgia. During Razuri’s July 19,2007 guilty plea hearing, the evidence showed that from July, 2000 through June, 2005, while an owner and operator of Southside Medical & Rehabilitation Center, Razuri conspired to bill over $5 million in fraudulent physical therapy claims to Medicare and Georgia Medicaid. The evidence also showed a conspiracy to defraud State Farm Insurance by creating false and fictitious medical and billing records of automobile accident victims.

Razuri’s co-defendant, Eric Baty, a chiropractor formerly of Savannah, Georgia, is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday, October 12, 2007 in U.S. District Court in Savannah.

Booth praised the efforts of the investigators in this case, including agents with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Georgia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The government
was represented by Jim Durham and Brian McEvoy, Assistant United States Attorneys for the Southern District of Georgia.