Metairie Doctor Pleads Guilty to Receiving Materials Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors and Health Care Fraud; Local Health Care Billing Company Also Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud

NEW ORLEANS—DAN JOACHIM, M.D., age 51, of Metairie, Louisiana, pleaded guilty as charged today before United States District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman to receiving materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors and health care fraud, announced United States Attorney Jim Letten. PHYSICIANS ANALYTICAL SERVICES, INC. (“PAS”), a Maryland corporation, also pleaded guilty to the one count with which it was charged, health care fraud.

JOACHIM faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years, followed by up to a life term of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine. He can also be required to register as a sex offender. PAS faces a maximum fine of $500,000. Sentencing has been scheduled for April 18, 2012, at 1:30 p.m.

A portion of this case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; and the United States Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Inspector General. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrice Harris Sullivan and Jordan Ginsberg.