Mohd Azfar Malik
Press Release
Two St. Louis Area Doctors Admit Health Crimes
May 22, 2025
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri
ST. LOUIS – Two doctors from the St. Louis, Missouri area have pleaded guilty to federal crimes.
Dr. Asim Muhammad Ali, 54, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to illegally distribute controlled substances and to maintain a drug-involved premises. Dr. Mohd Azfar Malik, 71, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of making false statements related to health care matters. Malik, a psychiatrist, also agreed to surrender his Drug Enforcement Administration registrations authorizing him to administer controlled substances.
As part of his plea agreement Thursday, Dr. Ali admitted agreeing to perform health care services for Medicare patients of a company Dr. Malik owned, Psych Care Consultants LLC, but bill using Dr. Malik’s name and Medicare billing number. The doctors billed Medicare for “annual wellness visits,” a yearly appointment in which the health care provider develops, creates, or updates a personalized prevention plan and performs tasks including a cognitive function assessment. Dr. Ali did not see them in person but called asked a series of questions. Dr. Ali admitted that Medicare paid $3,902 for the fraudulent claims.
Dr. Malik admitted submitting claims for payment to Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurers in which he falsely claimed to have performed in-person services when he was out of Missouri or out of the country. In one example in the plea agreement, Dr. Malik admitted submitting a claim to Missouri Medicaid for an initial inpatient hospital visit on Dec. 3, 2023. Dr. Malik was in Hawaii at the time. He also admitted billing a private insurance company for the intravenous infusion of ketamine when he was out of town. The infusion was conducted by Dr. Ali. Dr. Malik knew Dr. Ali was under indictment and lacked a DEA registration authorizing him to administer controlled substances, including ketamine. Dr. Malik admitted causing a total loss of $19,442 to Medicare, Medicaid, and the private health care insurers,
Dr. Ali also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to illegally distribute controlled substances, one count of illegally prescribing controlled substances, one count of paying illegal kickbacks for referrals and one count of a submitting false claims last year in a separate 2020 case. He admitted involvement in a conspiracy to pay kickbacks for urine specimens referred for testing to one of his companies, Central Diagnostic Laboratory. Dr. Ali also pre-signed prescriptions for controlled substances to be given to patients on their next visit to one of his other businesses, the Institute for Pain Management LLC. Dr. Ali did not see the patients on the dates they received the prescriptions and rarely looked at patient charts or determined a legitimate medical need for the controlled substances that they were prescribing. Dr. Ali also signed prescriptions for patients who appeared to be selling or giving away their controlled substances.
Dr. Ali is scheduled to sentenced on August 25 for both cases. Dr. Malik is scheduled to be sentenced on August 11.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Missouri Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Sestric is prosecuting Thursday’s case and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Sestric, Derek Wiseman and Jonathan Clow are prosecuting the 2020 case.