After losing his license due to a healthcare fraud conviction, Spyros Panos posed as an orthopedic surgeon to review workers' compensation cases under the name of a former colleague, according to the New York Daily News.
Here are six things to know.
1. Mr. Panos lost his medical license in October 2013 after being convicted of fraud; since then, he took on the name of a former colleague and posed as an orthopedic surgeon to illegally review workers compensation cases.
2. While posing as his colleague, Mr. Panos collected more than $860,000 from his work. The physician whose identity Mr. Panos took on hadn't spoken with him for the past year.
3. Mr. Panos spent time in jail after his first conviction and was released in 2016. In the first five months of working with a company called Excel O under the stolen identity, he received $239,000 before heading to prison and resumed the scheme after release.
4. From December 2016 to October 2017, Excel O received $636,000.
5. In the most current case, Mr. Panos is facing wire fraud, healthcare fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. He could be sentenced to 32 years in prison and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine upon conviction.
6. Stemming from his days as a practicing physician, Mr. Panos pleaded guilty to stealing from insurance companies and was accused of performing unnecessary surgeries and botched procedure; in February, 260 patients settled a lawsuit with Mr. Panos' insurance carriers for $45 million.