A federal grand jury in Bridgeport indicted two doctors on charges of narcotics distribution, health care fraud and money laundering offenses.

Dr. Bharat Patel, 70, of Milford, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on July 12 and has since been detained. Dr. Ramil Mansourov, 47, of Darien, was apprehended by the Canada Border Services Agency on an immigration offense on July 13 and is currently detained in Canada.

As alleged in court documents, Patel and Mansourov are physicians who operated out of Family Health Urgent Care in Norwalk. The medical practice was formerly known as Immediate Health Care and was owned by Patel. Mansourov purchased the practice from Patel in 2012, renamed it Family Urgent Health Care, and Patel continued to work at the practice. Patel and Mansourov have been participating providers with Medicare and the Connecticut Medicaid Program. Beginning in approximately 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration received information that Patel and Mansourov may be writing prescriptions for controlled substances outside the scope of legitimate medical practice.

It is alleged that Patel regularly provided prescriptions for narcotics, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, to patients that he knew were addicted or had been arrested for distributing or possessing controlled substances. On numerous occasions, Patel provided prescriptions to patients who paid him $100 in cash for each prescription. In certain instances, Patel would write prescriptions for individuals who were not his patients in exchange for cash. At times, when Patel was not available, Mansourov provided Patel’s patients with unnecessary prescriptions. Patel and Mansourov also regularly provided post-dated prescriptions to individuals, sometimes with dates that matched future dates when the doctors would be out of the country.

It is alleged that certain individuals who paid Patel cash for prescriptions paid for the filled prescriptions by using a state Medicaid card, and then illegally distributed the drugs. The investigation revealed that in 2014 alone, more than $50,000 in cash deposits were made into Patel and his wife’s bank accounts, and that some of these funds were used to purchase Patel’s current residence.

It is further alleged that between November 2013 and December 2016, Mansourov defrauded the state’s Medicaid program of more than $4 million by billing for home visits that he never made, billing for nursing home visits that he never made, billing for office visits that never happened, and billing for visits that he claimed took place on dates on which he was actually out of state or out of the country. Billing records also reveal that, on some occasions, Mansourov and Patel billed Medicaid for the same patient on the same day at two different locations.

It is alleged that Mansourov moved some of the stolen funds to a bank account in Switzerland.

The five-count indictment charges Patel and Mansourov with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and hydrocodone, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, and one count health care fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. The indictment also charges Mansourov with two counts and Patel with one count of money laundering, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.