A Yuma physician who was found guilty of defrauding the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) out of more than $36 million was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison Friday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced.
Fazil was previously convicted on Sept. 4 of Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices (a class 2 felony), Illegal Control of an Enterprise (class 3 felony), Theft (class 2 felony) and Illegal Procurement of a Dangerous Drug (class 3 felony) after entering a guilty plea, Attorney General Mayes said. A State Grand Jury had indicted him on six felony counts on June 8. Fazil was sentenced in Yuma County Superior Court by Judge Claudia Gonzalez on Friday.
In a released statement, Mayes said "Dr. Fazil abused his position as a physician to steal more than $36 million from a taxpayer funded program that exists to provide health care to Arizona's most vulnerable residents. He billed for thousands of X-rays and other medical treatments that could not possibly have been performed and treated AHCCCS as his personal bank account. My office will continue to aggressively prosecute fraud in government programs to protect tax dollars."
As part of Fazil's plea deal, he will serve 7.5 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections followed by 7 years of probation. He will forfeit all of his assets — including real estate, medical facilities, vehicles, multiple aircraft, jewelry, luxury handbags, U.S. currency, cryptocurrency, and gold bars.
Fazil must alos surrender his medical license and registration with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). That allows healthcare providers and researchers to legally prescribe, administer or dispense controlled substances, according to CompHealth.
Fazil must also pay $36,542,901.45 in restitution to the AHCCCS program.
KAWC previously reported on former employees of the now closed Bio Family Clinic in Yuma who lost their jobs but were also waiting to be paid for their last weeks of employment. It was not immediately known if some or all employees have received that pay.
AG Mayes said that between July 1 and Dec. 31 in 2025, Fazil used three business entities — Bio Family Clinic, Inc., Yuma Mobile X-Ray and Yuma Kidney & Dialysis — to bill AHCCCS for tens of thousands of radiology services, including X-rays, ECGs (electrocardiograms or EKGs, a quick, painless and noninvasive medical test that records the electrical activity of your heart, according to the Cleveland Clinic), CT scans (computed tomography or CAT scans- a medical imaging test that uses rotating X-ray equipment and a computer to create detailed, cross-sectional "slices" and 3D pictures of bones, blood vessels, organs, and soft tissues, according to MedlinePlus), medical treatments and ultrasounds.
His entities collected $36.5 million in AHCCCS payments in that six-month period, compared to $4.7 million over the preceding 2.5 years — a 671 percent increase in paid claims, the attorney general said.
Investigators focused on 27 patients with the highest billing volumes. In one case, Attorney General Mayes said, a single patient's account was billed for more than 1,700 X-rays in six months, which she said is a physically impossible number that would have caused serious harm from radiation exposure, along with hundreds of other radiology services.
Fazil also wrote his wife Nadia Hanif multiple prescriptions for drugs like Clonazepam while she was outside the United States, then picked up the prescriptions himself from the pharmacy, Mayes said.
The case was investigated by Special Agents of the Arizona Attorney General's Office Special Investigations Section. Fazil was indicted by the Attorney General's Office in a major medicaid fraud crackdown this past June.
The Attorney General's Office thanked its law enforcement partners from the DEA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Yuma Police Department. the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office, the AHCCCS Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) OIG for their assistance on the investigation.
