A Riverside chiropractor who masterminded a years-long workers’ compensation insurance fraud scam that resulted in $150 million in losses to insurance companies was bound for state prison Monday to serve a sentence of 54 years, eight months behind bars.
Peyman Brian Heidary, 53, was convicted by a Riverside jury in January of more than six dozen felony and misdemeanor charges, including conspiracy, money laundering, healthcare insurance fraud and related counts.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Charles Koosed imposed the sentence required by law, observing that Heidary “took advantage” of his deep knowledge of the state workers’ comp system to satisfy his “greed.”
District Attorney Mike Hestrin released a statement referring to the defendant as a “sophisticated criminal” whose offenses undermined a program “designed to help injured workers get back on their feet without ruining them financially.”
“(Those) like Mr. Heidary don’t just steal money, they take advantage of innocent patients,” Hestrin said. “The sentence handed down … sends a strong message that these types of offenses will not be tolerated in Riverside County.”
Heidary, who according to court papers insisted that his co-conspirators call him “The Godfather,” perpetrated his scheme between 2009 and 2014, enlisting multiple people to enroll patients at his sham clinics.
A prosecution affidavit filed in September 2014 seeking court approval to access Heidary’s bank accounts noted that he was the “head of a criminal organization whose main purpose (was) to milk workers’ compensation insurance companies out of money using false or exaggerated injured workers’ claims.”
The defendant was originally the subject of a criminal complaint, but prosecutors ultimately put the case before the county grand jury, leading to an indictment.
When Heidary was arrested in the summer of 2014, District Attorney’s Office investigators initially estimated losses to insurance carriers at $50 million, but the loss calculation tripled by the time trial proceedings got underway at the end of last year.
Among the listed victims were Ace Insurance Group, AIG, Crum & Forster Group and Zurich.
Heidary procured the assistance of others to recruit claimants to visit his clinics in Riverside, Los Angeles and Orange counties, according to court documents.
The levels of treatment varied, but some people went away untreated, even though they had sustained authentic injuries, including Denise Rivera, a certified nurse assistant who testified that she suffered a knee injury during a workplace accident and went to one of Heidary’s clinics.
“They told me basically I was okay — my knee was okay,” Rivera said during questioning by prosecutors.
However, she continued to contend with repercussions from the injury long afterward.
Those who admitted conspiring to help perpetrate the scheme were former Los Angeles attorney Cary David Abramowitz, Gladys Ross, Angela Solis and Erica Torres.
Abramowitz was sentenced under a 2020 plea agreement to five years’ felony probation, while Ross and Solis each received three years’ probation under their own plea bargains.
Torres was the first conspirator to enter a plea deal in 2015, admitting seven counts of healthcare fraud, and she’ll be the last one sentenced on June 20.
She is free on bond.
None of the defendants had documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.