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Dr. Andrew Perrone, 50, paid Carmen Ballestas to convince victims filing or collecting accident reports to go to his Perrone Family Wellness clinic on Spring Valley Avenue for treatment, authorities allege.
Ballestas 59, "was taken out of the [Hackensack PD] building months ago by prosecutors and has been suspended since," an official with direct knowledge of the arrest told Daily Voice.
According to Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella, Ballestas “referred multiple clients to a health-care provider in violation of the NJ Insurance Fraud Prevention Act” between December 2015 and October of last year.
Perrone violated the same law by “making payments to and receiving pecuniary benefits for patients that were referred to him,” the prosecutor said.
Detectives from Musella’s office worked with their counterparts from the National Insurance Crime Bureau after his Financial Crimes Unit received a complaint last fall, the prosecutor said.
Ballestas and Perrone were both released pending June 19 first appearances in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
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