Records of 5 County-Paid Doctors Seized in Raids Targeting Fraud

In a coordinated series of raids Wednesday, Los Angeles County authorities seized records from the homes and offices of five county doctors in an effort to determine if they are ripping off taxpayers by moonlighting excessively at private practices and other jobs.

Authorities with the district attorney’s office and the auditor-controller’s office confirmed that they searched public and private medical offices, homes and cars, and seized dozens of cartons of medical records, time sheets and other documentation. They said it was believed to be the first time that searches for evidence of criminal activity had been done in connection with county-paid doctors suspected of not working their full 40-hour week.

“The search warrant was predicated on the belief that there were inaccuracies on time cards leading to payments for services not provided,” said Assistant Dist. Atty. Ronald H. “Mike” Carroll, who heads the office’s Special Investigations Division.

Based on extensive surveillance of the doctors, a search warrant was approved for 18 homes and offices--from posh Palos Verdes Estates and Beverly Hills to less glamorous locations in City of Commerce and Norwalk, according to the search warrant. That warrant gave authorities free reign to seize phone answering machines, address books, personal employment and bank records and “any record of medical treatment” including bills, evaluation reports, briefcases and notebooks from Jan. 1, 1995 to the present.

Those under investigation are Morris Asch and Daniel Ziner, surgeons at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, psychiatrists Dennis Munjack and Javad Razani, and obstetrics/gynecologist Sindu Morchi, according to the search warrant.

None returned calls seeking comment, but a lawyer for Asch strenuously denied any wrongdoing on the part of his client.

“Dr. Asch is a respected pediatric surgeon who has been practicing for many years in this area,” said defense lawyer and former prosecutor Robert Bonner. “He has not, based upon my review of this matter, engaged in any wrongdoing of any kind. I believe that when the D.A. looks at all the evidence in this matter, that they will conclude that Dr. Asch did not violate any laws.”

The investigation was started by the county’s Office of the Auditor-Controller after several callers to a county fraud hotline made allegations against two of the doctors.

After some initial surveillance and investigative work, Marion Romeis, head of the auditor-controller’s investigations unit, met with high-level district attorney’s office prosecutors in December. The investigation was kept so secret that no one in the county Department of Health Services knew of the searches until Wednesday morning, when Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti called health Director Mark Finucane to alert him.

Finucane did not return calls seeking comment, but has said that doctors who do not work for their county paycheck should be prosecuted. The doctors could be charged with felony grand theft, prosecutors said. Authorities said it will take several weeks to go through all the documents to determine if the doctors got paid for public service when they were not at work, or were at their private practices, Carroll said.

County doctors are allowed to be paid for 24 hours of private practice work a week, as long as it does not interfere with their county responsibilities. One defense lawyer said the county will have trouble proving any wrongdoing because personnel policies are so loose. The county has been in such need of certain medical specialists that some were hired with the understanding that they did not have to work a full 40-hour week as long as they remained on call, he said.

“To prosecute people, you have to be satisfied they intended to defraud the county, and if such representations were made, that would negate any criminal intent,” said the lawyer, who asked not to be identified.

Authorities conceded that if such promises were made, it could make criminal intent hard to prove. “That’s clearly something we are concerned about,” Carroll said.

Another complicating factor is the many operating agreements among the county, teaching universities and hospitals, which allow doctors flexible schedules to teach and work in private practice as well as for the county. Nevertheless, authorities wanted to press ahead with Wednesday’s searches because they believe some county doctors often do not work their full shift, and that a message needs to be sent that such activity will not be tolerated at a time when the county is dramatically downsizing its health system to avert fiscal insolvency.

Wednesday’s action came almost a year after Department of Health Services officials came under criticism from county supervisors for allowing some doctors to escape their duties. In several articles, The Times has reported that many doctors were suspected of excessively moonlighting and not putting in their county time over a period of many years, but that few had been disciplined or investigated.