State prosecutors Thursday withdrew seven of 34 criminal counts filed against a Unity doctor who allegedly sold prescriptions to patients or gave out pain and other medicine in exchange for work being done at his home.
The withdrawal of the seven counts of attempted Medicaid fraud by the state Attorney General's Office preceded Dr. Antoine Francis Cawog's decision to waive his right to a preliminary hearing.
Cawog, 63, of 102 Foxwood Drive, will be arraigned in March in Westmoreland County Court on the remaining offenses -- 24 counts of violating the state drug act and three counts of attempted Medicaid fraud.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Jeff Baxter said the counts were withdrawn because it could not be proven that Cawog knew the patients would be using public assistance money to pay for drugs at pharmacies.
State and local authorities accused Cawog of selling prescriptions and drugs in 2007 and 2008, including one sale in the lobby of Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg. Other times, they said, Cawog drove his black Cadillac Escalade to rendezvous spots.
Investigators said Cawog, a general practitioner, was prescribing controlled substances from his Irwin practice without doing complete medical examinations. He was charged with giving out drugs in exchange for patients' raking leaves, putting guards on rain gutters or for other work at his residence.
A confidential informant, used to make undercover buys from Cawog in and near Greensburg, said the doctor was writing the prescriptions in exchange for "cash, coins, 'girls' and services," according to court papers.
The informant said Cawog wanted money to build a home in the Middle East and planned to go there within three years, investigators said. That departure was moved up to May 2008, prompting Cawog's arrest in late April, according to an affidavit.
Cawog was indicted in May in federal court in Pittsburgh on two counts of money laundering. Prosecutors accused him of sending $275,000 in 2004 to a bank in Lebanon with the intent of "concealment of assets in connection with a bankruptcy case."
Cawog, who is considered a flight risk, is being held without bond by federal authorities. Last month, he asked a federal judge to consider giving him bond -- a move opposed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh.
Cawog's attorney, Tim McCormick, said he expected a hearing to be held in federal court over the bond request.
"He's an older gentleman with health problems, and being in jail ... is very difficult for him and his family," McCormick said.
Federal prosecutors contend Cawog continues to be a flight risk and owes approximately $2.2 million in unpaid federal taxes.
"The defendant has significant family ties to the countries of Lebanon and Syria with which this country has no cooperative or extradition treaties," a court filing states.
A review of seized financial records determined that as of October 2007, an account in Cawog's name at Bank Audi in Beirut contained $8.5 million, prosecutors said.
Federal officials said Cawog has received medicine and treatment to help with his medical issues.
Cawog carried a cane with him yesterday as he entered the courtroom of Hempfield District Judge James Falcon to sign forms.
Afterward, his wife of 28 years, Aurora, maintained Cawog is a good husband, father and doctor and would be proven innocent.
"Maybe because he's such a good person is how he's got here," she said before driving away from the judge's office. "But he's a good man, and he will prove his innocence and be out."
