Let me introduce you to Shabnam Dastmalchian, the wife of Masoud Bamdad, MD, another innocent incarcerated physician. Shabnam is another articulate writer who has joined us on Doctors of Courage to stimulate you to help us in the fight of stopping these illegal attacks on us and our family.  Here is her poignant letter:

To All Americans:

My family and I need your help in publicizing and exposing the corruption that lies within the federal criminal justice system. Prisons are filled with innocent people, such as my husband, Dr. Masoud Bamdad. My husband, an honest medical doctor with a heart to serve others and provide his patients the best care possible, has been unjustly sentenced to 25 years in prison. He has been incarcerated in federal prison against the rule of law and constitution for over a decade, due to the misconduct and corruption of federal judges and prosecutors. He is currently detained at FMC in Fort Worth, TX.

He has been falsely accused of running a ‘pill mill’ in which there have been numerous due process and civil rights violations within his case. Throughout this ordeal all of his legal and constitutional rights, including his 4^thand 5^thamendments, have been violated. He was convicted for only prescribing a total of 51.5 grams of Oxycontin to patients, a practice he was permitted to do under his license. The DEA continually tries to bring ‘pill mill’ charges against innocent physicians who are involved in the treatment of patients suffering from chronic pain. This is used as a way of blaming doctors for the unforeseen abuse crisis that arose in the near future; however, government regulators did not anticipate an abuse crisis either. The reason physicians like my husband prescribed opioids, such as Oxycontin as the drug of choice for pain management is because pharmaceutical companies, such as Purdue aggressively marketed and promoted their products to physicians and patients, claiming that it was safe and effective for long-term pain, including back and neck pain. They also taught physicians that Oxycontin was a safer alternative to short-acting narcotics and that it was time-released, avoiding potential for addiction. Unfortunately, my husband was one of many physicians that fell into the trap, even though he was simply doing his job of treating patients who were suffering from pain.

My husband was given a harsh sentence of 25 years, forfeiture of his office (and later extortion of me for about $300,000 in order for them not to auction my office), and a $1,000,000 fine. He did not receive this harsh sentence because he committed a crime, instead he received it through retaliation because he challenged the court and was able to discover the flaws and defects within his indictment. The government officials have abused their power and continue to do so by lying to the grand jury, convincing his lawyers to cooperate with the government, and using coercion as a tactic to gain “witnesses” so that they can hide behind their corruption. In many cases like my husband’s, the government began a secret investigation, completely disregarding the physician and state medical board. The government could have simply went and talked to the physician and asked him about his patients or brought in the state medical board to conduct a review. Instead, the government resorted to setting up my husband, so that they could continue to mass incarcerate innocent human beings. In this case, the government sent in agents pretending to be legitimate patients suffering from chronic pain, in which they routinely lied about their condition and symptoms to trick my husband into prescribing them pain medication. The agents later claimed that there was no legitimate need for the medication. It is difficult for physicians to identify scammers because there is no objective tests for pain. Everything within this case was an act of deception in an effort to seize money and assets. The federal government and courts do not have jurisdiction over him because he was simply a physician practicing pain management in an attempt to relieve the pain his patients were experiencing. His patients, clinic, and license were in California, so his case should have been handled as a state case, but the government has falsely handled it as a federal case. It is extremely unfair and unbelievable that in a civilized society, a 64-year-old educated physician who was only practicing his job is facing such a cruel penalty because pharmaceutical companies misled physicians and furthermore the government misled the jury. 

The courts constantly deny and ignore all of my husband’s claims of relief and appeals because they want him to stay in prison for as long as possible, so that they can hide behind their corruption and the numerous legal mistakes they have made within his case instead of taking accountability. His trial judge and the ninth circuit court continue to misconstrue the law and the constitution in order to cover up their own misconduct. It appears that “justice for all” and “equal protection of law” is only terms used for the justice system officials themselves, and not for US citizens. His case is an obvious example of corruption within the federal justice system and the courts continue to rule against the law and constitution. We need your help to spread our voice and bring the corruption within the government to light! Releasing innocent prisoners such as my husband will be in the best interest of society, justice, and the taxpayers whose money is spent on mass incarceration. If you need more information, please contact me at [email protected] or go to www.freedoctorbamdad.com. In addition, my husband’s case is from the central district of California and Ninth Circuit. You can check all his filings and the courts’ unresponsiveness on pacer.gov (Case 08-cr-0506-GW). Thank you so much for taking the time to read this email and I would greatly appreciate your help.

Sincerely,
Shabnam Dastmalchian

Help stop the gravy train

Addendum by Linda Cheek, MD:
The important thing to glean from this appeal is that the DOJ is completely corrupt, using gross government misconduct to incarcerate innocent physicians for money and jobs. We have to stop the gravy train in the court. The flagrant set up and entrapment of doctors through agents posing as legitimate patients and then testifying the treatment wasn’t “legitimate”, is out of my capability to understand. Are juries really that naïve, or are standard defense attorneys just that incompetent? Doctors being charged need to use the services of the three lawyers who know the system and how to fight it—Beau Brindley, Ronald Chapman II, or John Flannery (in alphabetical order). These lawyers can be found under Defense Attorneys.

I don’t agree with placing the blame on the situation on Perdue Pharma and Oxycontin. They are scapegoats just as doctors are, and were also simply attacked for money. SW Virginia gained $604 million which they then turned into hiring more attorneys to attack more doctors. The information we were taught by Perdue Pharma when Oxycontin came out was all true. Long acting opioids DO decrease the development of addiction. But, of course, if you are already an addict, then crushing the higher strength pills does give you a better high. But for pain, there is nothing wrong with long-acting formulas. The flip-flop to short-acting opioids is actually leading more addiction-prone people to that end.

If this use of government power is something you want to correct, then you need to become a member of DoctorsofCourage. It is only through getting the truth to the legislators and the people that we will win this battle. 

Addendum

Dr. Bamdad was scheduled for release in January, 2030. However, he was released to a RRM (Residential Reentry Management or halfway house) location in Long Beach, CA. But the Federal Inmade registry states that he escaped prison on 12/5/2022 which means that he must have left the halfway house and didn’t return. So he is now somewhere unknown.