DISCIPLINE SUMMARIES
ted to and taken responsibility for her misconduct. The Committee agreed that the proposed penalty would uphold the relevant penalty principles of maintaining public confidence in self-regulation, specific and general deterrence, rehabilitation, as well as demonstrating the Committee’ s condemnation of Dr. Syan’ s behaviour in breaching an order of the Discipline Committee.
ORDER In summary, the Discipline Committee ordered that Dr. Syan’ s certificate of registration be suspended for two months, that she be reprimanded, and that she participate in and successfully complete individualized instruction in medical ethics. The Committee also ordered Dr. Syan to pay the College its costs of the proceeding in the amount of $ 5,000. For complete details of the Order, please see the full decision at www. cpso. on. ca. Select Doctor Search and enter the Doctor’ s Name.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Dr. Syan waived her right to an appeal and the Committee administered the public reprimand.
DR. MIRZA RAJABALI VIRANI
PRACTICE LOCATION: Markham AREA OF PRACTICE: Family Practice HEARING INFORMATION: Statement of Facts, Admission
On June 20, 2016, the Discipline Committee of the College found that Dr. Virani committed an act of professional misconduct in that he engaged in an act or omission relevant to the practice of medicine that, having regard to all of the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional. Dr. Virani, a family physician who obtained his medical degree in Iran, had a company called MRV International. In 2006, Mr. Arshad Latif, a purported businessman from Pakistan, proposed an investment opportunity to Dr. Virani. Within a week or two of investing $ 25,000, Dr. Virani lost all the money he had invested with Mr. Latif. Mr. Latif proposed another business investment to Dr. Virani to try and recoup the losses from the previous failed investment. Dr. Virani brought the proposal, which involved buying thermocouples and sending them to Pakistan, to his patient, Patient A. Dr. Virani introduced his patient to Mr. Latif; Dr. Virani did not tell his patient that he had lost $ 25,000 in the earlier deal with Mr. Latif.
Patient A Patient A, who is originally from Iran, was Dr. Virani’ s patient between about 1989 and 2011. Patient A trusted Dr. Virani and had brought other members of the Iranian-Canadian community to him as patients. Patient A had told Dr. Virani during medical appointments that he had a successful business and a line of credit and was building a new home for his family. Dr. Virani suggested they become business partners and made requests for money. In August 2006, Dr. Virani telephoned Patient A, who was out of the country, and told him that he needed $ 60,000 right away. Patient A told his wife to obtain a bank draft payable to Dr. Virani out of Patient A’ s line of credit, which she delivered to Dr. Virani on August 30, 2006. Patient A agreed to loan $ 448,000 to Dr. Virani for the investment with Mr. Latif. Dr. Virani was aware that the money was borrowed from Patient A’ s line of credit. Dr. Virani agreed to pay the interest on the line of credit. Ultimately, Dr. Virani paid only four interest installments on the line of credit, totaling $ 15,134.82. On October 16, 2006, Patient A went to the Royal Bank of Canada with Dr. Virani and Mr. Latif and provided a $ 448,000 draft to MRV International. Next, Dr. Virani wrote a $ 448,000 cheque to Mr. Latif’ s company from the MRV account. RBC informed Dr. Virani that it would not deal with the Pakistani bank because RBC viewed it as a dubious transaction. Dr. Virani did not pass this information along to Patient A. Months elapsed, and Dr. Virani provided various reasons for not repaying Patient A’ s loan. In February
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DIALOGUE ISSUE 3, 2017