A 66-year-old Houston physician is accused of participating in a scheme that fraudulently billed the U.S. government millions of dollars for medical services never provided.

Authorities have now taken Joseph Montes into custody. He made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christina Bryan at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

A federal grand jury returned a 12-count indictment on September 30, which is now unsealed. It alleged that between 2020 and 2022, Mr Montes and others submitted false and fraudulent claims to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration for office visits that were never provided.

According to a statement by the Department of Justice on Tuesday, Mr Montes owned and operated two Houston clinics: Joseph A. Montes MD & Associates, P.A. and Montes Medical PLLC. He allegedly allowed co-conspirators to operate pop-up COVID-19 testing sites under his name. Patients visited the sites for nasal swab testing, while the co-conspirators allegedly billed HSRA for office visits.

The indictment also alleged Montes’s clinics submitted thousands of impossible claims. On approximately 29 dates, they submitted more than 3,000 claims for evaluation and management services. On December 1, 2021, they allegedly submitted more than 9,000 claims in a single day—roughly one patient visit every nine seconds over 24 hours.

From 2020 to 2022, Mr Montes and others allegedly billed HSRA approximately $30 million, of which HSRA paid approximately $20 million.

Mr Montes allegedly used proceeds from the scheme to make expensive purchases at a luxury car dealership and Tiffany & Co.

If convicted, Montes faces up to five years in federal prison for the conspiracy charge, 20 years for each wire fraud count, and 10 years for each money laundering count. He also faces a possible maximum fine of $250,000.