The Story From The Begining Copy 111

On Jan 20th 2004 a secret service and a FBI agent came to my house they interviewed my daughter about a caricature of a protestor holding a banner against president George Bush I called an attorney who said the times have changed and these things were common. My Family left for Pakistan on annual vacation. On Jan 24th 2004 at 4.45 pm in my extremely busy office 19 FBI agents with guns and badges raided the office under the pretext of Medicaid fraud They started to fill boxes with anything and everything, they were actually looking for stuff which had nothing to do with Medicaid or medical pract Staff was relieved, patients sent home 19 agents, ransacked the office, they were looking for guns and ammunition. The head of the team FBI agent Mr. Hoover and agent Sutherland spent 7 hours in my personal 15x15 office searching for something they overturned everything and confiscated my personal belongings including my passport , photo albums airline tickets letters from friends , they seemed to be very interested and focused on my Islamic books of which I had many an issue of Times with cover saying Bomb , and my flight manuals along with a passport with multiple entries to Saudi Arabia were center of their attraction. The following day at the FBI office in Midland, Texas they grilled me about Jihad, bombs my support for colleges and schools and Mosques I built in more than locations, my association with religious organizations and what I did as President of Muslim association of West Texas, and my hunting weapons and why I had so many (I had four weapons ) my immediate neighbor had 44 including automatic weapons Agent Hoover accused me of writing a threatening letter to Mr. Bush , but they didn’t have anything to show they informed me that I was looking at 200 Years behind bars . Their motives were soon apparent as they chased me 24/7 for the next nine months . I shared my predicament with my good friends and neighbors Dr Leshnawer and Dr pietella an eminent cardiovascular surgeon and an OB/GYN surgeon They both told me that I was being railroaded by the feds and I should give it to them they suggested an attorney name Bob leahey I consulted Bob Leheay who arranged a meeting with Mark Roomberg The assistant US attorney in Midland to find out what exactly were they up to. Mark Roomberg had nothing to show us , he talked in circles ,he believed There is about thirty thousand dollars of fraudulent billings .but had no evidence to show us. He gave

me the option of admitting to fraud ,that he will keep things all hushed up and I will spend one year in jail . I was outraged and did not hesitate in reflecting it to him I dared him to see him in court. I researched and found the best criminal defense attorney in Texas and reached Mike ramsey from Houston Texas who after listening to me a looking at the relevant documents concluded that they are fishing for something other than Medicaid fraud he reassured me that accusation is frivolous . The FBI agents kept chasing my car from my house to my office and to the mosque routinely They contacted everybody that I spoke to on the phone and scared them off ,I found gory accounts of such activities afterwards . Most of the people I knew were scared to associate with me and shunned me when they Could and given the circumstances I understood Few of my employees quit under pressure from the FBI interviews We often needed patient charts that were taken away by the FBI . An agent named Steve Frank used to bring these records to the office when we needed them to continue patient care He asked me to take a lie detectors test ,I agreed but the test was cancelled . The last time Mr. Steve French came to my office he told me that they were not looking at any thing butt they had other reservations and asked me to take a lie detectors test agai which I refused. ,I had agreed on taking one on two previous occasions but after reading about the test on the net it would have meant nothing except I fail it. This was almost nine months after they raided my office. I was exhausted everything around me was suffering my family my practice my finances I was heartbroken Then one day they showed up and arrested me , I was to be released on hefty bail but the prosecutor filed motion for stay and had my bail cancelled by a “Senior judge “ under laughable pretext ,but primarily locking their victory in trial by limiting my access to materials The trial was mockery of justice. We were confused about the actual charge , I was charged with ordering one unnecessary X ray on one patient in one of my clinics with With no records of billing or payment in six years. Not one patient witness who said that Tests were not done .We weren’t allowed to bring key witnesses , we were not allowed to present lots of crucial information they flashed summary charts irrelevant to the case in front of mostly illiterate jurors ,almost all our 22 motions were denied and my attorneys who had very little interaction with me while I was incarcerated failed me . We lost the case, in jury deliberation some jurors conjectured my support for banned organizations.

My punishment was time served , I was freed and placed under supervision ,To escape the humiliation , I requested permission to leave the country which they happily granted for the first time in fifteen years of court history , their objective of clipping my wings and fatally wounding my soul achieved , no practice of medicine no support of charities Of any kind one less target. We filed an appeal , in twenty minute they upheld the lower court decision ignoring many flaws in District courts proceedings ,we filed a Writ Certiorari in the Supreme Court which was not heard . We filed a writ of Habeas Corpus which was accepted for hearing but my attorney Don Flanary from Goldstein Goldstien and Hilley informed me that the honorable judge was “ angry “ that I may be charged with something else , all my friends and family members did not allow me to return to the same court in front of the same judge who was also “angry”. I die every day I cannot let this conviction stand . Because I am not a fraudster .

Athar Rana .M.D.