San Jose Mercury News, "Monte Sereno doctor accused of faking patients' need for surgery"

          On the day of his cancer treatment, 87-year-old Dung Le lay on a table, his frail body sedated as needles loaded with radioactive seeds were inserted into his prostate to destroy the malignant tissue his doctor told him was there. Afterward, the San Jose man was bruised, fatigued and hungry, having been forbidden to eat solid food for 24 hours. But Dung Le never had cancer, and his doctor knew it.
          Now that doctor, Ali Moayed of Monte Sereno, faces felony charges of battery, elder abuse and fraud for his treatment of Le, in a bizarre case that has deeply unsettled local physicians. Two other men in their 70s, their medical files falsified by Moayed, narrowly escaped the same unnecessary procedure, according to a state medical board investigator's report. Santa Clara County prosecutors are also investigating whether Moayed - who has pleaded not guilty to the charges - may have harmed 13 other men in a similar scheme.
          "He doctored the pathology reports to induce a patient to undergo a procedure that carried a significant risk," said Santa Clara County prosecutor Bill Butler. "The conduct was so egregious, it goes beyond simply medical malpractice." Sparked by a colleague's discovery of altered lab reports, the unraveling of Moayed's alleged deceptions spanned two years of investigation by several agencies, leading to his arrest in late June. But the question remains: Why would a prosperous doctor risk his career this way? Was it greed? A misguided sense that he was doing the right thing for his patients? Free on $500,000 bail but currently barred from practicing medicine, the 41-year-old urologist faces more than seven years in prison and potential civil lawsuits that could bankrupt him.