PROVIDENCE — A federal complaint was filed yesterday against Tarek W. Wehbe, a physician with Providence and North Providence practices, whose license was suspended less than two weeks ago by the state Department of Health.

The complaint accuses him of health-care fraud, money laundering and illicit distribution of drugs such as Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Wehbe, but he is believed to be out of the country, possibly in Lebanon, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente’s office announcing the criminal complaint.

According to affidavits filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, Wehbe owns and runs Renaissance Medical Group, with offices on North Main Street, Providence, and on Mineral Spring Avenue, North Providence.

The criminal complaint follows a civil complaint filed last week. Prosecutors are seeking $3 million from Wehbe, who the federal government accuses of fraudulently billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for services he did not perform.

Dr. David R. Gifford, director of the state Department of Health, this month suspended Wehbe’s medical license after a records inspection indicated Wehbe may have billed for services he didn’t perform, inflated the type of treatment he provided and billed for more than 24 hours of visits in a single day.

According to the affidavit supporting the drug distribution charge, Wehbe wrote prescriptions for substances such as Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin in a manner that was “without any medical necessity and outside the usual course of the practice of medicine,” the news release says.

OxyContin sells for between 50 cents and $1 in illicit sales per milligram. Thus, one 80-milligram tablet — the most commonly abused prescription dose — sells for $80, according to the court documents. Vicodin tablets typically sell for $4 to $6.

The affidavit details interviews with Wehbe’s patients, some of them in drug recovery programs, who said he would easily prescribe Percocet or OxyContin.

One patient, identified as “JM,” said he had monthly appointments with Wehbe that lasted less than three minutes. Wehbe had written more than 30 prescriptions for OxyContin for him. According to the affidavit, JM said that Wehbe was known on the street as “Dr. Feel Good.”

An investigation by the state attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Unit showed that, from May 2003 through December 2007, Wehbe wrote approximately 1,800 prescriptions for OxyContin or oxycodone, its generic equivalent, to more than 125 patients.

Wehbe’s records show he often prescribed the various medications time and again to the same people, without examining the patients, and without conducting tests to verify whether they were taking the drugs as prescribed or determining whether they may have been receiving the same or similar medications from other physicians.

A state and federal program designed to monitor Medicaid drug costs sent Wehbe at least 214 letters notifying him of concerns regarding the narcotic drugs he prescribed to patients.

Wehbe now faces felony charges as the result of a multi-agency investigation that stretches back at least as far as April 2006 and included the use of an undercover agent posing as someone in search of drugs.

The federal criminal case could now pause until Wehbe returns to this country, as the United States has no extradition treaty with Lebanon. Once here, he would face a hearing to inform him of the charges, which could then be presented to a grand jury for a possible indictment.

pgrimald@projo.com