Dr. John Stevenson Bynon Jr., a Houston physician who directed abdominal organ transplantation and served as surgical director for liver transplantation at Memorial Hermann Health System, was indicted on federal charges alleging he falsified medical records that made five patients ineligible for liver transplant consideration, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei said the indictment alleges that Bynon “betrayed the most sacred duty of a medical professional — to heal,” adding that prosecutors believe Bynon “stole years and hope from those who trusted him most by falsifying records and preventing patients from receiving organ transplants.” Prosecutors said Bynon was indicted by a grand jury in Houston last month.
According to court records made public with the indictment, prosecutors described the alleged conduct as involving medical-record statements for five patients. Prosecutors said three of those patients died, while two others were able to receive liver transplants at different hospitals after the alleged record changes.
Prosecutors said the five patients’ records were allegedly altered between March 2023 and March 2024. The indictment alleges one patient was ineligible to receive a donor organ offer for about 149 days before dying in February 2024 while under Bynon’s care, and it alleges another patient was ineligible for about 69 days and died in December 2023 during surgery to receive a new liver.
For a third patient, prosecutors said the indictment alleges Bynon entered false donor matching criteria that “severely restricted” the patient or made the patient “functionally ineligible to receive a lifesaving donor organ offer.” Prosecutors said that patient died in December 2023, two days after the alleged false matching criteria were entered.
Bynon’s attorney, Samy Khalil, told reporters outside federal court Thursday that the doctor is talented and that Bynon has performed “over 2,000 transplants” over a 40-year career. Khalil said, “Nothing he did was unlawful. Everything that he did was lawful and in good faith,” and he said the defense looks forward to “clearing his name in a court of law.”
The federal prosecutors’ announcement and the indictment publicly released Thursday did not describe a motive for the alleged record changes. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, Angela Dodge, declined to comment when reached by email.
Memorial Hermann shut down its liver and kidney transplant program after allegations against Bynon were first made public in April 2024, according to the reporting. The program later reactivated a year later. In February 2025, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which runs the nation’s organ donation program, designated Memorial Hermann as “not in good standing,” describing the action as the most severe step it can take and saying the designation reflects “a serious lapse” in patient safety or quality of care.
Separate civil lawsuits are pending in Houston civil court involving families of patients who died while waiting for liver transplants. The lawsuits seek to determine whether their loved ones were denied transplant opportunities due to the alleged record changes by Bynon. If convicted, Bynon faces up to five years in federal prison for each count.