BANGOR – An Aroostook County doctor was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court for obstructing a federal investigation and falsifying patient records.

Dr. Osama El-Sayed Abdella El-Silimy, 61, of Caribou pleaded guilty in May 2005 to three charges listed in a 118-count indictment.

El-Silimy was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Woodcock to five months in prison and five months of home confinement, followed by three years of supervised release. El-Silimy also was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.

The physician had pleaded as an individual and on behalf of his business, Aroostook County E.N.T. Clinic, to obstruction of a criminal investigation of a health care fraud offense, making false statements to federal investigators and to making and using false writing in connection with the delivery of health care services.

In sentencing the clinic, Woodcock ordered a separate $100,000 fine and put the facility on five years probation.

El-Silimy, wearing a dark suit and green tie, apologized Tuesday for his crimes, saying he has led an otherwise law-abiding life.

“Not in my wildest imagination did I ever believe that I could end up in the position I’m in today,” the doctor said, addressing the court.

In exchange for the guilty pleas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office recommended that El-Silimy be sentenced to between 10 and 16 months in prison and that the fines be reduced.

The maximum penalty on each count is imprisonment for not more than five years, a fine of up to $250,000 for the doctor and a fine of up to $500,000 for the clinic.

In sentencing El-Silimy, Woodcock said he believed the prosecution’s argument that the doctor took diagnostic scans from two northern Maine hospitals, many of which are still missing, in order to falsify his records.

Withholding the scans and trying to cover his tracks amounted to an egregious violation, the judge said.

“That’s an allegation, unfortunately, as old as Richard Nixon and as new as Martha Stewart,” Woodcock said.

The charges against El-Silimy stem from an investigation begun in May 2001 by at least three federal agencies into whether surgeries performed by the doctor were medically necessary.

However, charges alleging that he provided substandard medical care or that he committed fraud were dismissed.

A British citizen who was born in Egypt, El-Silimy panicked after FBI agents questioned him shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, his attorney, Jay McCloskey of Bangor, argued.

The physician changed the patient records in an attempt to address agents’ questions about the treatment he provided, and was fearful of prosecution because of his Middle Eastern descent, McCloskey said.

“I’m a good doctor and I’m a fine surgeon,” El-Silimy said, addressing the court. “I’ve never given anything but the best to my patients.”

Some patients appeared on his behalf.

El-Silimy received his medical education at the Royal College of Surgeons in Scotland and has practiced in the United States since 1999, when he opened his clinic in Caribou. His medical license remains active, but will now be reviewed by the state Board of Licensure.

The effect of the conviction and sentencing on El-Silimy’s visa status has not been determined.