RVC LIRR doc files to overturn prison sentence

A Rockville Centre doctor is trying to claim he is innocent after pleading guilty to faking disability claims for LIRR workers.

In January 2013, orthopedist Peter Ajemian plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and health care fraud for accepting cash to falsify documents that said that hundreds of LIRR workers had disabilities so they could collect benefits.

According to prosecutors, railroad employees would plan to retire at age 50, which would reduce the amount of their pensions. To make up the difference, they would plead disability to the Railroad Retirement Board. The RRB disability payments made their pensions equivalent to full salaries.

Ajemian, who is representing himself, has filed a motion to dismiss his sentence entirely. This is based on the claim that an independent review found that 91 percent of the patients who claimed disability and reapplied were actually disabled. The remaining nine percent includes people who died or abandoned their claims.

The RRB said that this is actually a sign that fraud is still prevalent and the board has low standards for what qualifies as a disability.

Ajemian also argued that what government prosecutors called “unnecessary medical tests” — such as x-rays, scans and nerve conduction tests — were actually necessary and that he acted as a doctor should to diagnose patients. Ajemian surrendered his medical license after he pled guilty.

He also argued in his motion that if the patients were lying to the RRB for disability payments, they could also lie to a doctor like himself.

Ajemian has so far served more than two years of his eight-year prison sentence, and he is currently in medium-security federal prison in Otisville, N.Y.

In his claim, Ajemian also blames his previous attorney, Thomas Engel, for his sentence. Ajemian said that Engel encouraged him to plead guilty, which he claims gave him no benefit over the other doctor defendant in the case, Peter Lesniewski. Lesniewski went to trial, was found guilty in August 2013, and was also sentenced to eight years.