YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Samir Wahib, 54, of Canfield, an obstetrician-gynecologist, pleaded guilty Wednesday to all five counts in his indictment in a scheme to receive kickbacks that defrauded Medicaid and Medicare.

He becomes the third of three area doctors to be convicted in the enterprise.

Wahib pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to conspiracy to solicit, receive, offer and pay kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program, offering or paying kickbacks in connection with a federal health care program; conspiracy to commit health fraud, health care fraud and obstruction of a criminal investigation of federal health care offenses.

Wahib will be sentenced at 2 p.m. Sept. 12 before Judge J. Philip Calabrese, who referred the matter to the U.S. Pretrial and Probation Department to complete a presentence report of Wahib’s criminal history and background.

The two other medical providers who pleaded guilty in the case are Dr. Joni Canby, 63, of Poland, an obstetrician-gynecologist, and Dr. Michelle Kapon, 43, of Youngstown, a family medicine practitioner.

Federal prosecutors said the doctors attempted to obtain reimbursement for testing that was not medically necessary.

Wahib was 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.

“These defendants are physicians accused of orchestrating a scheme to defraud a taxpayer-funded health care benefit program created to assist vulnerable populations,” Bridget Brennan, then-acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, stated in a 2021 press release.

“Their alleged conduct … was designed specifically to enrich themselves,” Brennan stated.

“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.