( CNN ) -- On Wednesday , a federal grand jury indicted the former director of the liver transplant program at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles , California , for allegedly lying about a liver accepted for one patient but transplanted instead into another patient who was lower on the waiting list . Dr. Richard R. Lopez Jr. , 54 , of the Cheviot Hills area of West Los Angeles , was named in the eight-count indictment , which accuses him of conspiracy , concealment of a material fact and six counts of falsification of records , the U.S. Attorney 's office for the Central District of California said in the indictment . The alleged incident occurred in September 2003 , when the hospital was offered a liver for one of its patients , identified as A-H . Patient A-H was second on the match list because of his poor condition , but he was in his home country of Saudi Arabia , the indictment said . The next patient listed for the liver was at another area hospital , it said . Instead of telling the organ procurement organization of the switch and letting the organ be offered to the backup patient , Lopez approved acceptance of the liver and its transplantation into A-B , a patient at St. Vincent , the indictment said . A-B was ranked 52nd on the match list behind nine other St. Vincent patients , it added . After A-B got the liver , Lopez and his co-conspirators falsely told authorities at the United Network for Organ Sharing ( UNOS ) -- the private , nonprofit organization that contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services to allocate donated organs -- that A-H had received the liver , the 19-page indictment says . Lopez later submitted a falsified pathology report on A-H 's removed liver , it added . That led officials to remove the ailing A-H from the wait list , even as Lopez was telling the man that he was still on the list , the indictment said . In April 2004 , Lopez told A-H to return from Saudi Arabia to the United States , which he did , it said . But by that time , A-H was too sick to undergo a transplant , so he returned to Saudi Arabia , where he died , the indictment said . The indictment further alleges that Lopez and unnamed co-conspirators asserted in reports filed until 2005 with UNOS that A-H had in fact received the transplant . That year , management at the hospital discovered the switch and cover-up and told authorities , it said . `` It came to light after UNOS did a routine audit , '' said Consuelo S. Woodhead , assistant U.S. attorney , major frauds section , in a telephone interview . A new administrative head of the hospital 's transplant program `` basically discovered that he [ A-H ] had not been transplanted and she reported it to upper management , and upper management reported it to UNOS , '' Woodhead said . Asked what might have motivated Lopez , she said , `` I really ca n't comment on that . '' She noted that the charges stem from the alleged cover-up , `` not from the decision to make the switch . '' Though it appears that , in making the switch , Lopez violated UNOS regulations , federal authorities did not address whether those violations rose to the level of a federal crime , she said . `` The system that 's in place is a very admirable system , if people would play by the rules , because it is a system designed to ensure equity in the allocation of livers , '' she said . `` It sets us apart from countries where people literally traffic in these organs for money . It is a system very worth protecting , but the integrity of the system depends first and foremost on people being honest with the system . If you actually lie about who got a liver , that 's a really fundamental perversion of the system . '' St. Vincent cut its ties with Lopez in 2005 and ended its liver transplant program in 2006 as a result of the incident , said Sharon Greengold , director of marketing , in a telephone interview . Lopez 's lawyer , James T. Duff , said he had not read the indictment , but denied that his client had falsified any documents and said Lopez 's decision to transplant A-B was based on medical need . `` A medical decision was made that that individual was going to die , and if a transplant was not made he would have died . That individual is alive today because of the transplant . '' A UNOS spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment . The hospital has cooperated with authorities in the investigation , the U.S. Attorney 's office said . In a written statement , the hospital said it was `` pleased that the federal prosecutors have concluded their investigation , and that the actions of a rogue physician , acting outside of the scope of his duties and hospital policy , were criminal in nature . '' Lopez is scheduled to make his initial court appearance in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on January 25 . If convicted on all eight counts , he faces a maximum penalty of 130 years in federal prison . The case was investigated by agents from the Department of Health and Human Services , Office of Inspector General and the FBI .
Dr. Richard R. Lopez Jr. , 54 , of West Los Angeles named in eight-count indictment . The indictments were handed up by U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick on Friday and allege that the defendants conspired to distribute more than a kilogram of cocaine between January 2012 and March 2013. Indictment : Doctor accepted liver for one patient , but then gave it to another 52nd on list . Original patient due for liver later died in Saudi Arabia .