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This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
Dr. Roger Beyer did not appreciate subtlety.
That meow you just heard wasn't part of your imagination. It came from a cartoon cat that appeared at the end of every one of Dr. Byer's television commercials. He was a gynecologist, you see. More specifically, Roger Byer was a urogynecologist, which means he specialized in the bladder and the rectum, in addition to the vagina. He was a very efficient man, it's presumed. Welcome to Dr. Byer's one-stop shop in Kalamazoo.
According to his website, Dr. Beyer provided health care to women in western Michigan for more than 40 years.
He owned a full-service obstetrics/gynecology practice that welcomed walk-ins and a urological clinic that would dispatch traveling nurses to a patient's house or nursing home for certain rehabilitation procedures. He was a friendly, familiar face in the community that some recognized as the local news' go-to expert on all matters below the belt. Dr. Beyer was the in-studio guest who spouted on about anal leakage while the viewers at home ate their lunch.
Joining us this morning is Dr. Roger Beyer. Good morning to you, doctor. Good morning. Facing those uncomfortable truths was part of Dr. Beyer's mission. He wanted to get rid of the stigma that surrounded women's health issues, especially for the aging, fecal incontinence, bladder issues, pelvic floor rehabilitation. Dr. Beyer offered state-of-the-art, non-surgical, minimally invasive solutions to help his patients regain control of their lives.
You look at the impact that it has on the family. They don't go out to restaurants. They don't go out and socialize with other people because it is so much more embarrassing to have your stool come out when you can't control it. Dr. Beyer remained at the forefront of gynecological technology by conducting much of his own research. He had been published in several dozen journals, abstracts, and posters throughout his career, a bona fide expert by all accounts and pedigree.
In 2000, Dr. Roger Beyer even launched a research facility to hold his own clinical trials and studies that extended far beyond his preferred specialties. Of course, he applied his not-so-subtle advertising philosophy to his new project. In 2016, the Beyer Research Group created quite the stir in Kalamazoo when it purchased billboards soliciting research volunteers that read, quote, "'Vaginal infections stink.'"
You have 11 seconds or less to catch someone's attention with a billboard. Lucy Wright-Pelletier, director of Bayer Research, says the shock value of the signs is eliciting a surprising response. We knew that we were going to hit some nerve.
But the positive response has been really overwhelming. The same day that I had a provider call and explain how unhappy they were with the billboard, less than 20 minutes later, I had a young lady calling saying, you know, I really need to talk to Dr. Beyer. My vagina stinks, and I need for him to tell me why. She called the right man. Dr. Beyer was a lifeline for those suffering from ailments that could be embarrassing or taboo.
He even held free seminars to educate the public. Dr. Beyer was generous with his time and knowledge, but with money. Shockingly frugal, apparently. On May 21, 2019, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs issued an administrative complaint against Dr. Roger Beyer. He was accused of reusing a single-use rectal pressure sensor on 100 different patients before replacing it.
Even though Beyer covered the device with a new condom each time, the reuse of such a medical device was not consistent with the device's instructions, nor was it copacetic with state health codes or the FDA. On June 11, 2019, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement encouraging those who underwent the rectal testing procedure at Beyer's practices to get tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C.
The risk of infection was low, the authorities claimed, but it was better safe than sorry. Dr. Beyer dismissed the health concerns and defended himself against all this malarkey. He said he contacted the manufacturer and the FDA and was told that the device was classified as off-label and could be reused. There's this disconnect between two sides of government, Beyer said.
We have one side of the government saying one thing, and you have the other side that says no. We've been using it for 12 years, have not seen any infections. We use the cleaning solution that kills hepatitis B, A, and HIV. And then we cover the device where they sleep. I would never do anything that would jeopardize their health. In all the years that I've practiced, their health and well-being has been my number one priority.
The state health department never received a report of any diseases linked to Dr. Beyer's questionable practice before or after the scandal was publicized. But that didn't stop the 71-year-old doctor from putting his office building up for sale the day after the investigation was unveiled. "This has not been an easy decision for me," he wrote, "as caring for my patients has been a great source of satisfaction and pleasure these many years."
Thank you for trusting me with your health care needs. New information in the case of a Kalamazoo urogynecologist. Roger Byer closed his practice last week. He is under a state investigation accused of improperly reusing a rectal testing device on patients. In light of the news, several patients came forward with tales of horror from their visits with Dr. Roger Byer.
For example, Jacqueline Cruzon told WWMT News Channel 3 that her problems began after she went in for a rectal and bladder surgery in 2010. Jacqueline Cruzon has never been the same.
Neither has an anonymous patient who contacted the news station claiming she had suffered kidney failure linked to having a bladder infection linked to the surgery she received from Dr. Beyer. It's hard to imagine that somebody that had such a nice office, great personality, great staff, be so unsanitary, the former patient said. Elizabeth Udink had also been infected after a posterior repair at Beyer's office in May 2010.
Elizabeth told News Channel 3 that her symptoms only worsened after each subsequent surgery. Dr. Beyer performed on her to correct the problem. She still suffers from health issues today because of it, she said. But now Elizabeth Uding and everyone else affected was afraid that Dr. Beyer would just walk away scot-free. I feel like he's getting away with it. I really do. I feel like his little retirement plan is his way of skating out on all of us women that he's hurt.
But there was still a lot happening behind the scenes. The recycled rectal pressure sensors were only part of the problem. It was later revealed that the real reason Dr. Beyer was being investigated was that he was suspected to be involved in an elaborate healthcare fraud scheme. It all started in December 2016. One of Dr. Beyer's traveling nurses was seriously injured in a car accident. As a result, she was temporarily out of work and Beyer's office could no longer meet demand.
So Dr. Beyer instructed an unnamed nurse assistant, whose certification had expired, to travel to the injured nurse's patients to perform the therapies. That unqualified nurse assistant did what she was told and sent her reports back to the office, where Mark Saber, the business manager of Dr. Beyer's practice, created patient encounter records using the injured nurse's name.
Additionally, Mark Sabre would use inappropriate diagnostic codes when billing Medicare for those services to generate more money. The records were all there. The feds had them. It was easy to prove. In December 2019, Mark Sabre was arrested. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
He was later sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the scheme. The criminal indictment says between 2016 and 2017, Sabre, along with two others referred to as Person A and Person B, agreed to violate Medicare regulations by letting an unlicensed nurse assistant perform services at patients' homes in the Traverse City area. Person A and Person B were Dr. Roger Beyer and his wife and nurse practitioner, Susan Wright.
On May 11th, 2020, they were both arrested. Beyer was charged with misuse of a medical device and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.
Susan Wright was also charged with the misuse of a medical device and for withholding information about a felony. Reusing single-use medical devices on multiple patients and health care fraud. That's what a Kalamazoo OBGYN and his wife are accused of doing. Tonight, they are facing federal charges. On May 15, 2020, Dr. Roger Beyer and Susan Wright entered guilty pleas.
Beyer admitted filing $487,000 in fraudulent claims as part of a scheme to defraud Medicare between 2011 and 2015, and his wife knew. And Beyer also admitted to directing staff at both practices to reuse a single-user rectal pressure sensor on patients as part of a pelvic muscle rehabilitation therapy. In September 2020, Susan Wright was sentenced to three years in prison.
However, Dr. Beyer's sentence was delayed. His lawyer filed a motion attesting that the 70-year-old had a rare lung disease and wouldn't stand a chance in a COVID-ridden prison. But there was no mercy. On October 29, 2020, Dr. Roger Beyer was sentenced to four years and nine months in a federal penitentiary.
Dr. Roger Beyer treated the Medicare program like a game, and he cheated at that game for almost a decade, resulting in almost a million dollars of criminal health care fraud. U.S. Attorney Andrew Burge wrote in Beyer's sentencing memorandum, but their greed-fueled misconduct didn't just hurt the Medicare program. Instead, by reusing single-use and single-user medical equipment in these procedures on multiple patients, they recklessly risked the lives and health of their patients.
In addition to their convictions, Beyer, Wright, and Sabre entered into civil settlements with the United States federal government. They agreed to repay a combined total of more than $1.2 million in false claims. There was no restitution for the victims, even those whose lives had been permanently altered by a pillar of the community. How does one move on from such a devastating breach of trust if not even the most respectable man can resist the intoxicating sin of greed?
The same month that Dr. Roger Beyer was sentenced, the trial for Dr. Javade Perweys began. It's a similar story, about a man with a similar profession and similar motivations, but features a far more invasive crime. Impossible, one might think, but just you wait and see.
A well-respected OBGYN practice is revealed to be an incredibly lucrative and incredibly disturbing healthcare fraud scheme on this episode of Swindled.
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Special Agent Tamika Williams with Health and Human Services. The date is October 28, 2019. Time is 4 p.m. Beginning recording for HHS case number 318-00251.
On October 28th, 2019, at 4 p.m.,
two special agents with the United States Department of Health and Human Services paid a visit to the offices of Javade Perweys, MDPC OBGYN. The department had received an anonymous tip from a hospital nurse about Dr. Perweys that initiated an investigation. And now, more than a year later, the Department of Health and Human Services was ready to talk to the man himself.
Hello. Hello, hello, hello. Dr. Boyd. Yes, sir. Yes, I'm Paul Hastings. Nice to meet you. Nice to see you, sir. This is my partner, Samantha Williams, with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Let me show you my credentials. You have my card. We're good? Okay, great. Thank you so much. Good. Hopefully we're not interrupting your practice. Okay. Well, actually, why we're here is we received a complaint regarding some of your buildings and services that are provided.
And we need to talk to you about that to try to resolve this issue. So we do need a few minutes of your time. Is that something you'll help us with? Sure. Okay, great. The beginning of the interview centered around Dr. Purwaze's operation. Did he work alone? Yes. It had been a solo practice for the past 39 years. About how many patients did he see on a regular basis?
Approximately 100 a day. Maybe 400 a week. Up to 5,000 every year, he said. What type of procedures do you do? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Jave Perweys was a very busy man.
He worked six days a week. He had taken only one vacation back in 1982, ever since Dr. Purwys had been available around the clock, night and day, rain or shine. Dr. Purwys dedicated his life to his work. Never married, never had kids. His career was everything. It had afforded him a lifestyle so far removed from growing up in that small house in that small town back in Pakistan that had no running water or electricity.
Dr. Purwais did not take it for granted. Life hadn't always been this easy, but it got easier for Javed Purwais with each good decision he made. Purwais graduated with honors from a medical school in his home country in 1974, and then he was accepted into a four-year medical residency training program in Charleston, West Virginia. Dr. Javed Purwais moved to the United States of America without speaking a word of English. He had $30 in his bank account.
Purwys had claimed that he had always dreamed of becoming a doctor. Ever since he was a child, he had always wanted to deliver babies. Now, here he was, 30 years old, living in the greatest nation on the planet and newly licensed in the specialties of obstetrics and gynecology. The American dream come true.
In July 1980, Dr. Purwaze landed his first job as an OBGYN at an established practice in Portsmouth, Virginia, run by two former Navy doctors. He stayed there for two years working out of the Maryview and Portsmouth General Hospitals before deciding to branch out on his own. In August 1982, Dr. Javade Purwaze opened a solo practice in Chesapeake, Virginia.
He has worked out of his two offices there ever since, providing expert and individualized care to multiple generations of patients. Dr. Purwaze's website read, quote, His surgical skills are unparalleled. According to numerous patients, so was his personality. Dr. Purwaze had been described as a warm and gentle, kind and caring man with an easy spirit and a comforting bedside manner.
Many of the nurses at the hospital say working with him was a joy. He would personally thank everyone, from the surgical assistants to the receptionists, after every procedure. And there were a lot of procedures. That was the thing about Dr. Purwaze. His appointment book stayed full. Most of his operations were scheduled on Saturdays, usually back-to-back, one after another, sometimes only six minutes apart.
It was quite a sight watching Dr. Purwaze during those shifts bouncing from room to room all day long. He would go on for hours without sitting down or taking a bathroom break. Those frenzied sessions were described as "Purwazathons" by the hospital nurses, some of whom had difficulty keeping up. But it was worth it. Dr. Purwaze was known to shower his employees with lavish gifts: leather coats, handbags, expensive watches, and holiday trips.
But there was one nurse, Margo Stone, who received much more than the rest. Margo had worked with Purwys the longest. She had been the only registered nurse and office administrator at his practice for over 30 years. Margo Stone was the closest thing to family that Javade Purwys had in the United States. He had become a grandfather to her sons. He paid for their private schooling and college tuition and bought the oldest boy his first car.
Dr. Purwaze even hung framed portraits of Margo's boys on his office wall and put their initials on the vanity license plates of one of his cars. Margo Stone was working in Dr. Purwaze's office the day that the agents from HHS dropped in for that interview. They wanted to speak with her as well, but she had declined. Something just didn't feel right about a cold call visit from the federal government in the middle of the day. Dr. Purwaze was having second thoughts too.
While being asked a question, Purwaze interrupted the agents and excused himself. He stood up and said he needed to check on a patient in the other room. Where did Javed Purwaze go? We can only wonder, and we can assume that he knew where this was headed.
Dr. Purwaze wasn't sure exactly what the interview was about because they wouldn't tell him. They'd received a complaint, they said, and needed to question him about his billings and services. Purwaze needed a second to think, probably. To ask Margo for advice, maybe. Everything was happening so fast. He should probably get a lawyer, he finally decided. Dr. Purwaze walked back into the room. Hi.
Just a question. Yes, sir. Do you have any official letter of somebody authorizing all of this? I don't know how it works. Well, a complaint was made to us, and we have to respond to that complaint. What are these patients?
I can't say that anymore. Are you sure? Okay. I mean, they're just general questions. You know, the oversight over the program and everything. Yeah, I understand.
And we respect that but we're just trying to get to the bottom, resolve an issue that was brought before us. Well I would like to resolve if there's any complaint. I absolutely want that addressed. Certainly. I fully cooperate but I don't think I should be answering these questions anymore. I've answered already too many, probably too many without somebody else who can interject. Okay did you, okay did you want to call a lawyer or attorney or anything like that?
The Department of Health and Human Services did not learn much from their 20 minute visit with Dr. Purwais, at least not as much as they had hoped. They needed to see patient files, medical records, documentation of some kind to prove their case. They were going to have to obtain that evidence the hard way. The day after the interview, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secured a search warrant for Dr. Purwais' main office on Churchland Boulevard. That afternoon, the FBI raided the place.
I don't know.
Dr. Purwaze was not in his office when the federal agents seized some of his medical equipment, appointment book, and more than 3,000 patient records. But he went back to work the next day. He saw patients and scheduled surgeries for the weekend like nothing had happened, which is exactly what the federal agents feared Dr. Purwaze would do. The authorities were worried that Dr. Purwaze was performing unnecessary surgeries on patients, as the anonymous tipster had warned.
And now with his files in hand, they would finally have proof. But it was going to take a while to make sense of it all. Knowing what the Department of Health and Human Services thought they knew, there was a moral obligation to prevent Dr. Purwys from continuing the practice. But the procedural process to temporarily suspend his medical license would take months to complete.
The only option remaining was for the Justice Department to hastily prepare a criminal complaint so the FBI could make an arrest. So they made it happen. A year of interviews with patients and nurses had provided enough juice. On Friday, November 8th, 2019, Dr. Javed Perwez was arrested. He was charged with one count of healthcare fraud and one count of making false statements relating to healthcare matters.
During his initial court appearance, Dr. Purwys was still wearing his green medical scrubs. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Krask ruled that the 69-year-old doctor was a flight risk. Purwys had tens of thousands in liquid cash at his disposal with no blood relatives in the United States, and additional charges were sure to come. So Dr. Purwys was held in custody without bond. In a phone call from the Western Tidewater Regional Jail,
Javade Purwaze discussed the case with his girlfriend, Erica Smith. He still knew very little of the details of what exactly was happening, but soon, the entire Hampton Roads region in Virginia would learn the truth. I'm just thinking just too far. I shouldn't be, right? And, I mean, from what I've just heard,
He didn't say it. My feelings are some of the things that I get here, I'll get in that little piece of paper they've given us, the criminal complaint paper. Yeah, that employee at the hospital, the whistleblower, so to speak, started it. But their key witnesses are going to be the office people. Yeah, yeah. How do you know this?
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Federal prosecutors have been dissecting medical records for patients of Dr. Gervais Perwez over the last several weeks. Now he's facing more charges, 11 felonies in total, including two counts of identity theft. Prosecutors claim unnecessary gynecological surgeries were performed on women. Five unnamed victims were listed in the new indictment. They say some surgeries were performed without the patient's consent or not performed at all.
Federal prosecutors allege he aggressively encouraged patients to get surgery by saying they could develop cancer if they didn't. On December 6, 2019, about a month after his arrest, Dr. Javed Perwez was indicted on 11 felonies, including five counts of health care fraud, four counts of making false statements relating to health care matters, and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
The U.S. Attorney's Office and FBI established a page on their website to ensure the current and former patients of Dr. Perwey stayed informed of the developments in the case. They also set up a hotline where victims could call in. The phone never stopped ringing. Federal prosecutors said in court this morning, it's a strong case that's getting even stronger. She said since his arrest, the number of women who have come forward against Perwey is now more than 170.
Six months later, a superseding indictment charged Dr. Purwys with 52 additional counts, including 25 counts of healthcare fraud, 33 counts of making false statements related to healthcare matters, and 3 counts of aggravated identity theft. The indictment alleged that Dr. Purwys executed a healthcare fraud scheme in multiple ways.
For example, Dr. Purwais would alter the estimated due dates of his pregnant patients and induce them early for no medical reason whatsoever. Investigators found out of his last 100 deliveries that Dr. Purwais had induced 84 of them before the 39-week mark and 33 of those 84 labor inductions were found to have had no valid medical justification.
Dr. Purwais forced the deliveries around his schedule, so he would be the doctor that would deliver the baby, which is the only doctor that gets paid. This practice was contrary to the medical standard of care and resulted in danger for mother and child. The babies delivered by Purwais often required extra care, and the nurses at the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center had taken notice. They named the babies delivered by the doctor, quote, Purwais Specials.
Asia Wiggins gave birth to one of those Purways specials. A beautiful baby boy who was welcomed into the world a week ahead of schedule for no particular reason. Asia did not have a high-risk pregnancy, but she says Dr. Purways rushed it. She said the delivery was hectic and rough, and her son was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy soon after. Asia thinks it was Dr. Purways' fault.
Kaitlyn Gilbert had a similar experience. Dr. Purwais induced her labor early and then struggled to get the baby free. So as I'm pushing, he is basically pushing my cervix behind the baby's head for the baby to be able to be pushed past my cervix, which is why now explains that my baby was born with excessive fluid in his lungs. He called me on the phone one time,
to make sure the baby was okay because he botched my son's circumcision as well. Wavy TV Channel 10 News also tracked down a woman named Terry, whose son Jonathan was delivered by Dr. Purwais in 1987. The fourth ventricle in baby Jonathan's brain had been crushed by the forceps Dr. Purwais had used incorrectly.
As a result, Jonathan has lived with a condition called hydrocephalus. He couldn't tie his shoes or take a bath until he was 10 years old. Today, Jonathan is in his mid-30s and can't drive a car. Terry sued Dr. Purwais for malpractice in 1993, but the lawsuit was eventually dismissed. Three years later, the parents of Timothy Slutemaker sued Dr. Purwais for lack of care.
Timothy had developed cerebral palsy as a result of the doctor's delivery method. Dr. Purway settled out of court with the Slootmaker family for $725,000 and he continued delivering babies for another 23 years.
Another way Dr. Purwys committed fraud was by billing for two in-house diagnostic procedures that he regularly abused. A hysteroscopy is a procedure that allows a doctor to look inside a uterus using a thin-lighted tube called a hysteroscope.
According to investigators, Dr. Purwais billed Medicaid 86 times for performing this procedure in 2016. The second place provider in Virginia had only performed six. Quite the outlier. Even stranger, prosecutors alleged that Dr. Purwais was not performing all of these hysteroscopies correctly, if at all.
Patients said that he would perform the entire procedure in less than 10 seconds, which is nowhere near enough time to make an accurate assessment, and sometimes the lens of the hysteroscope was cracked and broken, or the light wouldn't even work.
Dr. Purwys' colposcopies, a diagnostic examination of a patient's cervix, was another pointless endeavor. He refused to use a $5 bottle of acidic solution required for it to work. Yet Dr. Purwys would scribble down some notes, send the bill to the insurance provider, and make recommendations based on imaginary results. This brings us to the third way Dr. Purwys perpetrated his fraud scheme. Unfortunately, that anonymous tipster was correct in their suspicion.
Dr. Purwaze had performed hundreds of unnecessary surgeries. He would prescribe a hysterectomy for a headache, it seemed, or he would scare his patients into life-altering and irreversible operations by telling them that cancer was imminent. And the only way to avoid it was to remove the uterus, the cervix, the ovaries, or the fallopian tubes, sometimes all of the above with no other avenues. Naturally, those were the operations that cost the most.
and hundreds of women, many of them low-income, poorly educated single mothers on Medicaid, trusted their doctor without a second opinion. They would show up at Chesapeake Regional Hospital or Bon Secours Health Center at Harborview on their appointed date. The waiting rooms would be full of women every single weekend. Many of them had no idea why they were there at all. Those who had undergone multiple surgeries with Dr. Pearlways referred to their visits as their, quote, annual clean-out.
Better get there early. It was first come, first serve. Investigators discovered that over a nearly 10-year period, Dr. Purwies performed a surgical procedure on 41.26% of his patients. The average rate of other doctors was 7.6%. And the surgery was just the beginning. There were multiple reports of post-op complications, issues like lingering pain, miscarriages, and incontinence.
Some of Dr. Purwaze's patients even claimed he operated on them without their consent. His former patient, LaQueen Williams, says she's seen Purwaze since she was a teen and he took her ovaries out without her consent during the surgery.
Dana Chisholm has a similar story.
She went to have her ovaries removed, but woke up to discover that Dr. Purwase had taken her uterus instead. I hope everybody that he has done wrong gets a piece of what they need to make them feel better. He needs to be put away. I honestly think he needs to be locked up and the key thrown away. He's a monster.
Dr. Purwaze had a miscommunication with Sonia Medlin, too. I didn't expect a total hysterectomy. I did not. He told me he would not take my ovaries. And he did. There were countless more. Dr. Purwaze would justify their operations on consent forms filled with lies. Patients claimed their records were full of complaints they'd never made and diagnoses they'd never heard.
Purwaze would also backdate the forms to skirt the 30-day waiting period Medicaid required for sterilizations. It could have you diagnosed and operated on in four days time. The only motive was money. In the last seven years of his practice, Dr. Javed Purwaze had earned more than a million dollars per year. The average OBGYN earns around a quarter of that amount. It pays to be above average. And that's how Javed Purwaze lived.
He owned five luxury cars, millions of dollars in property, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in art and gold when he was arrested. Investigators determined that in recent years, he had spent more than $400,000 at Neiman Marcus. He'd also spent $70,000 on sunglasses and ordered more than $63,000 worth of merchandise from QVC, the home shopping TV channel. The outrage was justified. I was baffled at first, like,
It was really, it's like that many women. And like they go to him thinking this is the person that's supposed to help me. This is the person that's supposed to, I'm supposed to look to for help and to have me in good health. And he's just basically like tearing us apart.
Just made me feel less of a woman because of all the stuff that he's died. Said I had to have surgery and the whole thing, the whole office visit was like 10 minutes and it was like, oh, you got to go to surgery. Had many meetings with the FBI and come to find out he never took my ovaries. He never took my ovaries. He did the hysterectomy, told my family that I had cancer. I had none of it. He basically died.
Like, he used us to get wealthy. He used his patients to get where he wanted. He told us that we had cancer cells. We must get rid of this or we're going to get more. This man does not care about any of us women. He doesn't care what he's done to anybody. It was all about his lavish lifestyle. Why had it come to this? Why wasn't Dr. Purway stopped sooner?
All the red flags were there. For instance, way back in October 1983, Dr. Purwaze's clinical privileges at Maryview Hospital in Portsmouth were terminated due to poor clinical judgment after it was discovered that he had performed unnecessary hysterectomies on about a dozen women. Dr. Purwaze had also admitted to having a sexual relationship with the patient on the job
Maryview administration sent a letter of warning to Chesapeake Regional Hospital where Dr. Purwaze had recently applied. Chesapeake Regional ignored Maryview's warnings and granted Dr. Purwaze permission to operate out of their facility. Shortly after, Maryview Hospital ignored its own warnings. Dr. Purwaze's privileges there were reinstated in 1985.
A year later, the Virginia Board of Medicine voted to censure Perwaze for lack of documentation and judgment for the unnecessary hysterectomies and patient sex. It was a strongly worded slap on the wrist. Use more discretion in the future, Perwaze was told. So he did, for a few years at least. But then in 1989, Dr. Perwaze committed a crime so heinous that he finally caught the federal government's attention.
Purwaze had purchased a Ferrari 328 for a little less than $90,000, which he wrote off as a business expense as an ultrasound machine on his tax return. Purwaze did the same thing with the Mercedes-Benz he had purchased the prior year. He claimed that one as a deduction for malpractice insurance.
The prosecution also alleged that Dr. Purwais had used corporate funds to purchase, quote, On August 24, 1995, Dr. Javed Purwais was charged with six counts of felony tax fraud.
On April 10, 1996, Dr. Perwes pleaded guilty to two counts of signing and filing a false tax return. He received probation and 16 hours a month of community service.
That same month, Purways' Virginia medical license was revoked, but it was reinstated just four months later after Dr. Purways completed the board-ordered 20 hours a week of board-approved, uncompensated medical care. Case closed. But in the fall of 2004, there were signs of more trouble. Maryview Hospital created an early delivery report and noticed that Dr. Purways' name appeared quite frequently.
That same report in 2006 detailed 13 more cases where Dr. Purwais induced early labor. Maryview Hospital did nothing with this information. In the following years, the red flags continued to multiply. An investigation conducted by the Optima Health Insurance Company in 2012 found that Dr. Purwais was drastically over utilizing his stereoscopies. The Virginia Board of Medicine was never informed.
Ultimately, that tip by an anonymous nurse in 2018 marked the beginning of the end. But again, why wasn't Dr. Javade Purwais stopped sooner? Why were all the red flags ignored? The prosecution and former nurses assumed, like usual, that money was the answer.
The investigation revealed that from 2010 to 2019, Chesapeake Regional Hospital collected more than $18 million for surgeries performed by Dr. Javade Purwaze. Bond Secures at Harborview collected more than $3 million. It was also discovered that Javade Purwaze owned a minority stake of ownership in Harborview, as if he needed the extra incentive. The nightmare didn't end until Dr. Purwaze's arrest on November 8, 2019.
His trial was scheduled for October 2020. Until then, Javid Perlways sat behind bars, denying that he had done anything wrong. He denies ever violating the trust of any patient, performing any unnecessary procedure, or committing fraud of any kind, his lawyer said. Dr. Perlways looks forward to addressing all allegations against him at a court of law.
One of those was Portsmouth resident Sonia Medlin. When I heard he was going to be on the stand, I told my husband, this will give me the closure that I feel like I need. I really need to see him, not a picture of him, because I see him at night in my dreams. I can close my eyes and see him standing over me.
The trial of Dr. Javade Purwais began on October 14, 2020, at a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia. It lasted about four weeks and featured mountains of evidence, along with the testimonies of more than 50 witnesses, many of which were Dr. Purwais' former patients and former employees. They took the stand to confirm everything of which he had been accused. One by one, each victim, referred to only by their initials,
recounted in detail how Dr. Javed Perwez had deceived them, how he had scared them with cancer, how he had pressured them into surgery, how he had butchered them, and how they're still suffering from pain.
They described how Dr. Purwaze had made mistakes, how he had changed due dates, lied about results in backdated forms. The patients described how the doctor had delivered their babies early, how he had removed their wombs without their consent, how their lives would never be the same.
Another patient gave a similar story. She had a history of cancer in her family and says that she trusted the doctor and that's why she went ahead with the procedure. But she had complications afterwards. She cannot use the restroom and to this day she still has those complications. She told the jury this through tears when she was on the stand this morning. The nurses and hospital staff that had worked for Dr. Perlweiss also had plenty to say.
They claimed to witness him changing information on consent forms, changing vitals to justify surgery, and forging patient claims to make them look sick. They said he billed insurance companies for diagnostic procedures that were never performed. Even Purwaze's best friend, Margo Stone, could attest to that. Margo Stone testified against Dr. Purwaze at his trial in exchange for immunity.
She said she had heard the patient's complaints about excessive surgeries, and she said she had witnessed Dr. Purwaze using broken instruments or not sanitizing properly. But in the 30 plus years that she worked for him, Margo said she had never seen Dr. Purwaze put a patient's health in jeopardy. Margo also confirmed that she had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from the doctor over the years. The defense claimed that Dr. Purwaze was on trial for a tiny portion of a 40-year career.
The man had worked with tens of thousands of patients, they said. The atrocities were overstated. To prove it, the defense only needed two witnesses. The first, an anesthesiologist who basically said Dr. Purwaze was a nice guy and very skilled. The second was Dr. Javade Purwaze himself, who proceeded to get caught in multiple lies when he was on the stand, trying to dodge every question he was asked.
Purwys admitted that his record keeping quote left something to be desired, but denied performing unnecessary surgeries. He pointed out the fact that Maryview was a Catholic hospital with a bone to pick because of their unsavory views towards sterilization. Maybe all of this was just an act of revenge.
Dr. Purwais also claimed that he never induced pregnant women earlier than legally allowed. But he did admit, under cross-examination, that it would change their due dates based on calculation, not convenience. And he also confessed to performing sterilization procedures without waiting the required 30 days. Dr. Purwais said he would only backdate the forms if it was what the patient wanted. Sometimes it was required to outpace their expiring medical coverage, he said.
When the prosecution confronted Dr. Purwais about his lifestyle, his car collection, his fancy sunglasses, his $5,000 suits, Dr. Purwais conceded, In their closing arguments, the prosecution told the jury that the longtime Chesapeake gynecologist broke his patient's trust. He was greedy, and he needed the money to support a lavish lifestyle.
The defendant wanted money, and he didn't care if he defrauded insurance companies and hurt women along the way. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Yusey told jurors, This is a man who will say anything to get what he wants, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Butler added. He was the conductor on a train of deceit. The patients were his passengers, but they were on a one-way destination to surgery.
The jury deliberated for three days. On Wednesday, November 9th, 2020, they returned with a verdict. Dr. Javed Perwez was found guilty of 52 of the 61 charges, 23 for healthcare fraud, and 29 for making false statements related to healthcare matters.
And we begin at six with breaking news and a day of victory for dozens of Dr. Javid Perwez's patients. Jury convicted that Chesapeake OBGYN are performing unnecessary surgeries on his patients to get millions of dollars in insurance money. In an orange jumpsuit, 70-year-old Dr. Javid Perwez walks out of the federal courthouse. He will die in prison based on the guilty verdicts the jury handed back Monday. It was true.
Purwaze faced a maximum of 475 years in prison. Luckily for him, the prosecution only asked for 50. While waiting to learn his fate, Javed Purwaze did himself no favors in garnering sympathy. Not once did he apologize or show any remorse to anyone he had affected. And in another jail phone call with his girlfriend, Purwaze showed his true colors.
Faced with a tidal wave of civil litigation in the near future, Purwys worried aloud about his fortune. "It's all going to get settled. These people are going to make a lot of money, all these vultures, all these blacks from Portsmouth, because of my criminal conviction." On March 31, 2021, Jalvade Purwys was sentenced. "This cannot be tolerated from our licensed professionals," said Judge Rebecca Smith.
This is an overwhelming amount of fraud at every point. It was done for greed and to enhance your lavish lifestyle, and you have shown no remorse. I hereby sentence you to 708 months in prison. That's 59 years. Continuing coverage of a former OBGYN convicted of health care fraud. Today, a judge sentenced Dr. Javed Perwez to 59 years in prison for doing unnecessary procedures on patients.
Judge Smith also ordered Javid Perwais to pay a total of $20.8 million in restitution. That money will be used to compensate the real victims of this tragedy. Some of the patients have filed civil suits against the doctor, but attorneys say this money will go to the victims in the case, the insurance companies. Prosecutors said Dr. Perwais' illegal and unnecessary procedures had cost insurance programs more than $20 million in losses.
Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. As for the human victims of Dr. Purwaze's surgery spree, they will have to fight for themselves in civil court if they still can. Some of the victims' surgeries happened so long ago that malpractice attorneys are declining to take up their cases. For some, seeing justice get served was adequate compensation. However, much of their anger remains. All he wanted is money in his pocket. He needed more. He needed more time.
But he has something, 59 years. But we still have to move on. I forgive him, but I never forget. I want the world to know, like, this is not right. It's not. Everybody keeps saying that he was a good doctor. No, he wasn't no good doctor. I feel like justice was definitely served, and 59 years is definitely fitting because it doesn't seem like he's going to be around for much longer anyway. 59 years, that's all right. He's off the streets.
Others just felt empty. I'm glad that he can't do it to anyone else, Karen Lane, a long-time patient, told the Washington Post. But I still feel left out, like he didn't get anything for what he did to me. I still feel like he got away with it for me. I don't think anything is going to really make it better.
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