Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan announced Monday that a grand jury returned an 11-count indictment charging Samir Wahib, 53, of Canfield and Joni Canby, 62, of Poland for their roles in a scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.

The indictment states they attempted to obtain reimbursement for testing that was not medically necessary.

Michelle Kapon, 41, of Youngstown, also was named in the indictment, but charged separately in a bill of information for conspiring with Wahib and Canby to accept kickbacks from Wahib.

All three are medical doctors, Wahib and Canby are obstetrician-gynecologists; and Kapon is a family medicine practitioner. Wahib has been licensed since 1999, Canby since 1985 and Kapon since 2009, according to the Ohio Medical Board.

No court dates were listed as of Monday afternoon.

None of the three could be reached for comment at medical offices listed for them.

“These defendants are physicians accused of orchestrating a scheme to defraud a taxpayer-funded health care benefit program created to assist vulnerable populations, Brennan stated.

“Their alleged conduct, which included kickbacks and medically unnecessary testing, was designed specifically to enrich themselves.”

Brennan added, “The payment of kickbacks is a corrupt and illegal practice that inappropriately influences an individual or entity’s capacity to make unbiased decisions, which is of particular concern in the health care environment,” said Lamont Pugh III, special agent in charge of the Chicago region office of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General.

“Kickbacks can result in the overutilization of diagnostic testing and other services that ultimately lead to an increase in program costs, waste valuable taxpayer dollars and can expose patients to medically unnecessary services.”

“Subjecting patients to unnecessary tests is bad medicine,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost stated in a news release.

The indictment charges defendants Wahib and Canby with conspiring with Kapon to solicit, receive, offer and pay kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program; and it charges Wahib and Canby with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care fraud.

Wahib also is charged with obstruction of a criminal investigation of federal health care offenses, as well as four additional counts of paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program. Canby is charged with two additional counts of receipt of kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program.

Wahib is accused of conspiring, from March 2014 through January 2017, to pay kickbacks to Canby and Kapon to induce them to order gonorrhea and chlamydia testing to be performed by Wahib on specimens of Canby’s and Kapon’s patients.

Wahib allegedly then billed and was paid by the federal government for the testing. Wahib and Canby also are accused of conspiring to test Canby’s and Wahib’s patients when it was medically unnecessary to do so.

The indictment alleges Wahib paid Canby and Kapon per specimen. Wahib would then submit claims for reimbursement through the Medicaid and Medicare programs.

Wahib allegedly provided Kapon, who was not an OBGYN specialist, with compensation in kind in the form of supervision of her OBGYN treatment of patients at a Youngstown-area hospital.