A Los Angeles-based chiropractor who provided rehabilitation services to professional athletes and the public has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for defrauding the NBA Players Health and Welfare Benefit Plan of approximately $1.3 million.
Patrick Khaziran, 40, also must pay restitution of $1.3 million and forfeit $439,000, the Department of Justice announced Feb. 7. Khaziran, known as “Dr. Pat,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in the Southern District of New York.
“As a medical provider, Patrick Khaziran had a responsibility not to abuse his position of trust. Instead, Khaziran used his role as a licensed chiropractor to generate dozens of fraudulent invoices for at least 22 former NBA players,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in the report. “He did this to enrich himself and his co-conspirators at the expense of the NBA Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan. Today’s sentence sends a clear message that those who engage in health care fraud schemes, particularly medical providers, will face stringent penalties.”
The plan provides benefits to eligible active and former NBA players, the report stated. Khaziran, owner and operator of a chiropractic and rehabilitation office in Los Angeles, California, schemed from about 2016 to 2019 with former NBA players Keyon Dooling and Terrence Williams to defraud the plan, the report states. Khaziran provided false documentation “that former NBA players received certain medical services” that were not performed.
Khaziran defrauded the plan by using fraudulent invoices that he or others created that former NBA players in turn received and submitted to the plan for reimbursements. He also used fraudulent debit card charges that he or others charged on plan-issued debit cards of former NBA players, the release said.
Williams and Dooling are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty, according to the report.
“The Plan-issued debit cards were intended to be used by Plan participants to pay for eligible medical services at the point of service,” the release said. “However, Khaziran charged the Plan-issued debit cards of former NBA players for medical services that were never actually provided.”
