YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Samir Wahib of Canfield was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $55,000 fine in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.

Wahib also was ordered to pay restitution of $211,092 jointly and severally with co-defendant Dr. Michelle Kapon subject to later adjustment through a motion to the court, according to court documents.

Wahib, 56, is an obstetrician-gynecologist who pleaded guilty in June to five federal charges in a scheme to receive kickbacks that defrauded Medicaid and Medicare.

Jointly and severally explains the responsibility that is shared by each party to an agreement. Essentially, it states that all of those named are obligated to perform all of the actions required under the agreement, according to www.investopedia.com.

Federal prosecutors said the scheme included medically unnecessary testing designed to enrich Wahib and two other previously sentenced Youngstown-area

doctors.

Wahib’s lawyers filed a sentencing memorandum last week asking Judge J. Philip Celebrese to sentence Wahib to probation and no prison time, citing the service Wahib provides to women and babies in Sullivan County, Ind., where he has worked

as a doctor since the case arose.

The sentencing memorandum also describes the care of Wahib’s mother that would be interrupted if he were sent to prison. He has cared for his mother at his home in Indiana since he brought her there in 2019. Wahib moved to Indiana in 2017 while his wife and daughters remained in Canfield.

Federal prosecutors said Wahib conspired from March 2014 through January of 2017 to pay kickbacks to Dr. Joni Canby and Kapon to persuade them to order gonorrhea and chlamydia testing to be performed by Wahib on specimens of Canby’s and Kapon’s patients.

Canby of Poland was sentenced June 23 to two years of probation, a $30,000 fine and restitution of $135,632. She also was ordered to complete remedial educational courses in professional ethics. Her license was suspended indefinitely for at least one year, as of March 8.

Kapon of Youngstown was sentenced in July to two years of probation, an $8,000 fine and restitution of $75,460, jointly

and severally owed with Wahib.

According to a sentencing memorandum written by Kapon’s attorney, Ron Yarwood, Wahib paid Kapon $15 and Canby $20 for every specimen he tested for them. Wahib then submitted claims to the federal government for payment for the tests.

erunyan@vindy.com