After Fraud Conviction, Houston Physician Allegedly Plots Murder of Prosecutor and FBI Agent

By Nina Youngstrom

The plea agreement in a Texas health fraud case reads like a Hollywood script, complete with a jailhouse conspiracy, a physician's plot for revenge and conversations taped by undercover FBI agents. A Houston physician already serving time for a health care fraud conviction was also given a 30-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to making threats against three people: his wife, the federal prosecutor who helped put him in jail and an FBI special agent, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said May 22.

Ira Klein, M.D., then a Houston gastroenterologist, pleaded guilty to one count of threatening to murder a law enforcement officer. Klein wanted to retaliate against the three people for their participation in his health care fraud conviction, the feds say.

While Klein was in jail during his trial for health fraud, he met with fellow inmates to discuss the alleged murder scheme, the feds say. He agreed to pay an inmate $550,000 to have the federal prosecutor run over by an 18-wheeler and "make him like a pancake," to have acid thrown in the FBI agent's face and to have his own wife shot because Klein "was convinced she helped authorities secure his conviction," the feds explain.

Sheila Sawyer, a former federal prosecutor who is not involved in this case, says that "death threats against federal prosecutors are extremely rare." But as this case shows, the government takes threats against prosecutors and agents "very seriously," she says.

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