(Washington, DC) The District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) has joined the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office and the DC Department of Health (DOH) in announcing that a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has charged the owner of a dental clinic with health care fraud and making false statements after a joint governmental investigation.

According to the indictment, Afsaneh Tehrani, 47, of McLean, VA, was charged with allegedly executing a scheme to obtain money by submitting false insurance claims from 1997 to 2005. The claims were for dental procedures that were not performed, for identical claims to two insurance companies for performed dental work, and for identical claims to two insurance companies that had not been performed. The defendant would falsify the dates when the procedures were done and alter or destroy patient records of D.C. Dentistry, a dental clinic she owns and operates. She also claimed that a water leak caused damage to patient records. D.C. Dentistry is located at 1712 “Eye” Street, NW, Suite 910.

“Should these charges be true, I am shocked by the extent of Ms. Tehrani’s crimes in her attempt to defraud the insurance agencies,” said DISB Commissioner Thomas E. Hampton who announced the indictment with US Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein, Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington office Joseph Persichini Jr., and Dr. Gregg Pane of DOH. “This case reiterates that some people are becoming more creative in perpetuating different types of fraud. DISB will continue to be aggressive in its fraud-fighting enforcement and investigation by keeping both the consumer and the businesses it regulates aware of these.”