Addicts’ Favorite Psychiatrist-Dealer Pays Fine, Avoids Jail in Pill-Mill Scheme

Just how bad a person do you have to be to lose your medical license in Connecticut?

Do you have to be a mass murderer? A drunken surgeon? A bank robber?

Apparently, merely being a drug pusher running a “pill mill” isn’t enough for authorities to pull your license to practice.

Connecticut psychiatrist Dr. Naimetulla Ahmed Syed agreed last month to pay a whopping $455,439 penalty in response to allegations by the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, the Special Agent in Charge of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, the Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and the Connecticut Attorney General. Allegations included that the psychiatrist violated the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act; issued unnecessary prescriptions that were then billed to Medicare and Medicaid; billed for unnecessary office visits; prescribed dangerous and excessive quantities of downers; and wrote prescriptions for individuals who displayed known red flags of abuse, addiction or diversion (like selling guns to homicidal maniacs, he profited off of peddling death).

“We have all seen firsthand the devastation wrought by the opioid and addiction crisis.”

The government’s yearslong investigation indicates that Syed was the local addicts’ favorite drug dealer—writing their prescriptions for opioids and depressants, fudging records and omitting his prescriptions from patients’ files. He even had a chummy deal with Cornerstone Pharmacy to fill the prescriptions—no questions asked.

“Naimetulla Ahmed Syed defrauded the state and endangered his patients,” said Attorney General William Tong. “Today’s settlement reflects the joint efforts of numerous layers of state and federal law enforcement to ensure he pays for his misconduct and never practices medicine again.

“We have all seen firsthand the devastation wrought by the opioid and addiction crisis—the thousands of grieving families across Connecticut with empty seats at their holiday tables. We will not hesitate to use every ounce of our authority to hold accountable the individuals and entities who have perpetuated and profited from this epidemic.”

But it took a long time to shut Syed’s crooked game down—much too long.

Syed had already gotten in legal trouble before—twice, once in 1998 and again in 2010—allegedly prescribing medications for one person, then handing the drugs to another. In 2016, he agreed to pay $422,641 in response to allegations of health care fraud. Astonishingly, Syed’s medical license was never revoked, in spite of the fact that the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut stated their investigation “revealed that on numerous occasions between July 2009 and December 2013, Syed billed Medicare and Medicaid for psychotherapy services using a code for individual psychotherapy lasting 45 to 50 minutes, face to face with a patient, and medical evaluation and management services. In the vast majority of these cases, Syed saw his patients for between five and 30 minutes, at most, and did not perform medical evaluation and management services.”

Then, in 2021, Syed was forced to give up his controlled substance license. But in 2024, Syed retired—still holding his license to practice medicine.

The question we have is: How did this guy stay out of jail at all?

“The volume of fraud and abuses from the psychopharmaceutical industry and the psychiatrists is enormous.”

Both Syed and his buddy—Yong Kwon, owner of Cornerstone Pharmacy, which supplied the drugs—should have been arrested, tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail based on these credible allegations. The penalty Syed received was likely minuscule compared to the dirty money he was making while in business, preying on addicts, and he walked away still clutching his bags of loot.

Worse, he’s not the only one. In case after case, Connecticut psychiatrists like Syed have been found ripping off taxpayers through Medicare and Medicaid scams.

• Last month, Ramon Apellaniz of Middletown, 39, and Suhail Aponte, 38, were arrested and charged with health care fraud offenses. Apellaniz had previously operated the Gemini Project, falsely claiming to provide counselling services he never delivered. Apellaniz managed to scam Medicaid out of $909,268, though he was never even a licensed provider. He was charged with larceny, health care fraud and identity theft offenses in 2020. Eventually, in April 2024, Apellaniz was sentenced in Hartford Superior Court to eight years in prison, but was released after just 15 months. 

• Apellaniz and Aponte had run a company called “Minds Cornerstone,” which Apellaniz continued to operate under a pseudonym even after he was imprisoned, claiming to provide behavioral services to autistic children. “It is alleged that between November 2021 and December 2024, Apellaniz and Aponte submitted or caused to be submitted to Medicaid fraudulent claims that exceeded $1.8 million in losses to the Connecticut Department of Social Services,” the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut wrote.
• In 2022, Cortney Dunlap, a licensed “mental health” counselor, was sentenced to 57 months in prison for submitting false claims of $1.3 million to Medicaid. The “counseling” he was billing for never took place.
• In 2018, Ronnette Brown, another Connecticut crook, was found guilty of 23 counts of health care fraud and sentenced to 48 months in prison. Ronnette was also billing Medicaid for “counseling” she never delivered.

“The volume of fraud and abuses from the psychopharmaceutical industry and the psychiatrists is enormous,” said one appalled visitor to the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death exhibit, organized by mental health watchdog the Citizens Commission on Human Rights.

Syed is a prime example. The Connecticut Medical Examining Board can remove a license on the basis of “fraudulent or deceptive conduct in the course of professional services or activities.” So what more did they need to rescind Syed’s? Why was he allowed to retire still holding his license?

Psychiatric fraud has gotten completely out of hand. Law enforcement must get aggressive in detecting these Medicare and Medicaid scams, and catching and prosecuting psychiatrists before they do more harm. Medical licensing boards need to toughen up and snatch licenses away at the first sign of fraud.

Either that, or we allow scammers in white coats to keep playing us for suckers—all while the American taxpayer pays for it, out the nose.