Attorney General Mayes Announces Medical Employee Will Serve Prison Time for Insurance Fraud and Money Laundering After Impersonating Doctor

MOHAVE COUNTY – Attorney General Kris Mayes today announced that Jose Andres Lopez has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, following by a 7 year term of supervised probation, and ordered to pay $45,000 back in restitution after defrauding the medical practice where he was employed. Lopez was sentenced after he pled guilty to Fraudulent Schemes & Artifices, a Class 2 felony, and Money Laundering in the Second Degree, a Class 3 felony. Lopez was sentenced by the Mohave County Superior Court on September 22, 2025.

"My office has one of the best Health Care Fraud and Abuse divisions in the country. I'm proud of the work they did on this case to uncover the fraud and illegal actions of this medical employee and their relentless effort to ensure AHCCCS dollars and other health care spending in Arizona is protected from waste, fraud, and abuse," said Attorney General Mayes.

Between June 2017 through March 2021, Jose Lopez was employed by a medical clinic located in Mohave County. The doctor who owned the clinic came to trust Lopez over time, and during the course of Lopez’s employment he was promoted to office manager. Lopez’s position as office manager involved managing various aspects of the practice, including access to the doctor’s login information for the electronic records management and prescription system. On numerous occasions in 2020 and 2021, Lopez used this access to send unauthorized prescriptions for himself and another employee.

Furthermore, between February 2020 and December 2020, Lopez created multiple false patient visit records for himself in the clinic’s electronic medical records system, which portrayed that he was receiving physical therapy treatment from the doctor. Lopez was not a patient of the doctor nor did the doctor treat Lopez as portrayed in these records. These patient records produced billing records that were submitted to two insurance carriers for a personal injury claim made by Lopez due to an automobile accident. Based upon these submissions, the insurance companies paid a sum of at least $45,000.00 to settle Lopez’s personal injury claim.

Additionally, on February 18, 2022, Lopez was sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court in connection with another case investigated and prosecuted by my office. Lopez provided false income information to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) to obtain healthcare benefits for himself. Lopez was ordered to pay restitution to AHCCCS as a term of his sentence.

Lopez was indicted for both cases in December 2022 following an investigation conducted by the Arizona Attorney General’s Criminal Division, Health Care Fraud and Abuse Section (HCFA).

Both cases were prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Vineet Mehta Shaw.

A copy of the indictment is available here. A copy of the defendant's booking photo is available here.