Psychiatrist Amar Nath Bhandary sentenced to 30 months prison for fraud

October 30, 2013

OKLAHOMA CITY – An Edmond doctor will be spending 30 months in prison after he was convicted of health care fraud.

Authorities say 53-year-old Amar Nath Bhandary was indicted by a federal grand jury in a 53 count indictment that alleged he was illegally distributing controlled substances.

The indictment said Dr. Bhandary gave various controlled drugs to eight people outside the course of his psychiatric practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.

Officials say his actions resulted in the deaths of five of those people from drug toxicity.

After a jury could not agree on a verdict on those counts, the court declared a mistrial.

However, additional charges were filed alleging that Dr. Bhandary submitted false claims to Medicare for services that he had not provided.

Bhandary pleaded guilty to committing health care fraud and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

He was also ordered to serve three years supervised release, pay restitution to Medicare, forfeit all interest in commercial property and pay a $20,000 fine.

Source: K. Querry, Edmond psychiatrist sentenced to prison time for fraud, KFOR-TV, October 30, 2013.