Ex-West Linn dentist charged with $8M COVID fraud

WEST LINN, Ore. (West Linn Tidings) — The U.S. Attorney’s Business office has billed a 43-yr-previous West Linn gentleman with fraudulently obtaining virtually $8 million in COVID-19 relief funds and making use of the revenue for private expenditures.

Salwan Adjaj, who practiced endodontics in Sherwood, Clackamas and Portland but had his license suspended by the Oregon Board of Dentistry in 2020, was lately charged with aggravated id theft and wire fraud.

According to a press launch from the U.S. Attorney’s Office environment for the District of Oregon, beginning in March 2021 Adjaj submitted dozens of fraudulent personal loan purposes to the Smaller Company Administration. This was element of an attempt to acquire Financial Affect Catastrophe Mortgage money, which were provided by the federal Coronavirus Assist, Aid, and Economic Stability Act.

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“Adjaj utilised the names and employer identification numbers (EIN) of fictitious organization entities on the fraudulent EIDL applications,” the push release mentioned. “He even further provided untrue details about the enterprise start out dates, selection of workers, and locations, and the identities of the purported candidates and enterprise owners.”

Though he applied other people’s names, he utilized his personalized household address as the business enterprise mailing handle on the apps.

The Modest Business enterprise Administration rejected most of Adjaj’s mortgage apps, but the previous dentist then allegedly turned to one more pandemic aid software: the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

The fund, aimed at helping bars and restaurants compelled to close during the pandemic, was aspect of the American Rescue Strategy Act.

“In May possibly 2021, Adjaj submitted 3 RRF purposes for places to eat allegedly found in Sarasota, Miami, and Daytona Seashore, Florida,” the push release said. “Like his fraudulent EIDL applications, Adjaj’s RRF programs contained fake organization information and facts and all detailed his personal home as the company mailing deal with.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Workplace observed these purposes were being extra prosperous than the types Adjaj submitted to the Little Small business Administration, and he was ready to acquire practically $8 million in govt reduction resources.

Adjaj was reportedly arrested yesterday, Dec. 14, for violating pretrial launch agreements. On Wednesday, Dec. 15, U.S. Lawyer Scott Erik Asphaug introduced Adjaj will be detained pending even more courtroom proceedings.

Not his 1st time less than scrutiny

The allegations of fraud are not the first time Adjaj has arrive underneath scrutiny.

After opening his first dental follow in Sherwood in 2006, Ajdaj was reprimanded by the Oregon Board of Dentistry in 2015 for failing to accomplish weekly exams of sanitization devices at his procedures in Sherwood and Portland.

In 2020, the board suspended his license and is continue to hunting into many alleged situations of misconduct.

According to information from the Oregon Board of Dentistry, in 2020 Adjaj purchased substantial portions of controlled substances together with “anabolic steroids from domestic and international shops for particular use and distribution.”

The board also alleged that from 2016 to 2020, he practiced dentistry underneath the impact of a controlled substance which was not prescribed to him.

According to the buy for Adjaj’s license suspension, the board received notice on Aug. 5 2020 that Adjaj was practicing dentistry below the impact of mind-altering substances even though many bottles of prescription prescription drugs were obvious in his open up, personalized backpack.

On the similar working day, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office searched his dental business office and household, obtaining many bottles of controlled substances — which Adjaj did not have a prescription for — in non-controlled prescription bottles . He admitted that working day to distributing anabolic steroids for cash and paying for and employing Diazepam, a sedative, with no a prescription. The board’s data did not specify which of Adjaj’s techniques some of the alleged offences occurred at.

Adjaj’s other methods involved Creekside Endodontics in Clackamas and PDX Endodontics in Sherwood, in accordance to the board.