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Health Care Fraud

Crooked Cardio Doc Admits Pocketing $2 Million In Health Insurance Ripoffs Crooked Cardio Doc Admits Pocketing $2 Million In Health Insurance Ripoffs
Crooked Cardio Doc Admits Pocketing $2 Million In Health Insurance Ripoffs The owner and sole medical provider of a Middlesex County medical practice admitted in federal court that he pocketed nearly $2 million in a long-running series of blatant health insurance scams. Dr. Fazal Panezai, a 76-year-old cardiologist from Morganville, at one point submitted claims for a single day's worth of visits to his Matawan-Aberdeen Heart & Medical Center in May 2022 that totaled 27.9 hours, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Hei also billed health insurance providers more than $80,000 for office visits when he was out of the country, the U.S. attorney said. Panezai …
NJ Mental Health Clinics Founded By Late Liberian Defendant Agree To Forfeit $6.4M, More NJ Mental Health Clinics Founded By Late Liberian Defendant Agree To Forfeit $6.4M, More
NJ Mental Health Clinics Founded By Late Liberian Defendant Agree To Forfeit $6.4M, More UPDATE: New Jersey authorities have legally seized $6.4 million and other assets from a chain of mental health clinics founded by a recently deceased Liberian presidential candidate for billing Medicaid for more than 10,000 bogus claims. Daniel E. Cassell, formerly of Perkasie, PA was under a 17-count state indictment when he died of an apparent heart attack at 56 years old on Christmas Day 2022. The West African-born Cassell -- who was a psychologist, business consultant and politician and founding member of Liberia's People Liberation Party -- was the president and chief executive officer…
Jersey Shore Business Owner From NY Admits $127M Health Care Kickback Scheme: Feds Jersey Shore Business Owner From NY Admits $127M Health Care Kickback Scheme: Feds
Jersey Shore Business Owner From NY Admits $127M Health Care Kickback Scheme: Feds A New Jersey marketing company owner from Rockland County admitted in federal court that he was a major figure in scamming Medicare, TRICARE and other benefit programs out of $127 million. Eric Karlewicz, 44, of Chestnut Ridge, NY, participated in a “circular scheme of kickbacks and bribes” with doctors, durable medical equipment businesses and telemedicine companies to pull off the massive con, U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna said. Karlewicz – also known as Anthony Mazza -- used his considerable cut from $63.8 million in payoffs to buy himself a fleet of luxury vehicles that included a Ferrari,…
TAPPIN' IT: Manager Admits Embezzling $4.5M From NJ Brain Injury Fund For Sex With Gal Pals TAPPIN' IT: Manager Admits Embezzling $4.5M From NJ Brain Injury Fund For Sex With Gal Pals
Tappin' IT: Manager Admits Embezzling $4.5M From NJ Brain Injury Fund For Sex With Gal Pals The now-former manager of a fund for traumatic brain injury patients in New Jersey admitted diverting more than $4.5 million in public money to women he was having sex with, authorities said. Harry Pizutelli, 64, of Edison, pleaded guilty by videoconference to conspiring to commit health care fraud before a federal judge in Trenton, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced on Wednesday, Jan. 4. One of the women who benefitted from the scheme, Maritza Flores, 45, of Toms River, pleaded guilty to the same charge, as well as to tax evasion, Sellinger said. In exchange, Pizutelli had amorou…
Theft Of $8.2M In HIV Meds From NJ Vets Hospital Gets Rx Tech 2½ Years Without Parole Theft Of $8.2M In HIV Meds From NJ Vets Hospital Gets Rx Tech 2½ Years Without Parole
Theft Of $8.2M In HIV Meds From NJ Vets Hospital Gets Rx Tech 2½ Years Without Parole UPDATE: A former pharmacy tech was sentenced to a plea-bargained 57 months in federal prison Thursday for stealing $8.2 million worth of HIV medications from a New Jersey veterans hospital to sell on the black market, authorities said. Lisa M. Hoffman, 50, of Orange, will have to serve just about all of the term because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas also sentenced Hoffman on Thursday to three years of supervised release while ordering her to pay the full $8.29 million in restitution – and to forfeit an additional $450,000. Hoffman wa…
Feds: Postal Supervisor In NJ Sold 400 Vax Cards That She Printed At Work Feds: Postal Supervisor In NJ Sold 400 Vax Cards That She Printed At Work
Feds: Postal Supervisor In NJ Sold 400 Vax Cards That She Printed At Work A U.S. Postal Service supervisor from New Jersey openly sold 400 bogus COVID vaccine cards that she printed at her job -- while claiming that a graphic design degree was "paying off" for her, federal authorities charged. Lisa Hammell, 39, of the South Jersey town of Turnersville, sold the cards for from $20 to $100 after advertising them on social media, an indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Newark says. Two of the buyers were from New Jersey and another was a federal employee in Virginia whose mother needed the card because she worked in a hospital and had to be …
NJ Doc Convicted Of Multi-Million-Dollar Medicare Fraud NJ Doc Convicted Of Multi-Million-Dollar Medicare Fraud
NJ Doc Convicted Of Multi-Million-Dollar Medicare Fraud A rheumatologist from Fort Lee was convicted of billing Medicare and other health insurance programs for nearly a decade for services that patients never got and expensive medication that her Clifton practice never bought, federal authorities said. Alice Chu, 64, went to trial in U.S. District Court in Newark after federal authorities accused her of submitting more than $8.8 million in bogus claims for "items and services that were medically unnecessary, ineligible for reimbursement, and/or not provided as represented," court papers show. Jurors found her guilty on Tuesday, March 8 of consp…
Ex-Physician Indicted For Illegally Prescribing Opioid Pills In South Jersey: Prosecutor Ex-Physician Indicted For Illegally Prescribing Opioid Pills In South Jersey: Prosecutor
Ex-Physician Indicted For Illegally Prescribing Opioid Pills In South Jersey: Prosecutor A former physician from South Jersey has been indicted for illegally prescribing highly-addictive opioid pills, authorities said. Morris “Moishe” Starkman, 62, of Yellowstone Road in Cinnaminson, has been indicted on 21 counts of narcotics distribution and fraud charges for the alleged activity out of his Bordentown Township practice, according to Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina. Starkman simultaneously engaged in an unlawful medical billing scheme over a three-year period, Coffina alleged. Starkman was indicted by a grand jury on 15 counts of distribution of a controlled d…
Ex-Employee Admits Stealing $10M Worth Of HIV Meds From NJ Veterans Hospital Ex-Employee Admits Stealing $10M Worth Of HIV Meds From NJ Veterans Hospital
Ex-Employee Admits Stealing $10M Worth Of HIV Meds From NJ Veterans Hospital A former pharmacy tech admitted stealing nearly $10 million worth of HIV medications from a New Jersey veterans hospital and selling them to a fence from Lyndhurst. Lisa M. Hoffman, 49, of Orange, used her authority to order excessive amounts of medication for the outpatient pharmacy from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in East Orange, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Surveillance cameras helped show how she “placed large orders for HIV medication, purportedly on behalf of the VAMC,” the U.S. attorney said. “After the medications arrived, Hoffman waited until co-worke…
HOOP SCHEMES: Onetime Phenom, Ex-NJ Net Among 18 Charged By Feds With $4M NBA Health Care Fraud HOOP SCHEMES: Onetime Phenom, Ex-NJ Net Among 18 Charged By Feds With $4M NBA Health Care Fraud
Hoop Schemes: Onetime Phenom, Ex-NJ Net Among 18 Charged By Feds With $4M NBA Health Care Fraud Disgraced onetime phenom Sebastian Telfair and more than a dozen other NBA veterans are charged with scamming the league's health plan out of millions of dollars, federal authorities announced Thursday. Darius Miles and Glen Davis are also among the 18 defendants named in an indictment returned by a grand jury in Manhattan that alleges they filed nearly $4 million in fake medical and dental claims to the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan for active and retired players. Former New Jersey Nets shooting guard Terrence Williams ran the scam, supplying letters that justified medical services…
Feds: NJ Teacher Admits Scamming Insurance Out Of $550G For Compound Meds Feds: NJ Teacher Admits Scamming Insurance Out Of $550G For Compound Meds
Feds: NJ Teacher Admits Scamming Insurance Out Of $550G For Compound Meds A now-former Lodi High School teacher admitted that he collected $550,000 worth of compound medications through bogus claims to an employee benefit program. Jason Nardachone, 51, of Nutley bribed three other teachers $500 a month each to obtain compounded medications that they, like him, didn’t need, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Some of the unnecessary compounded medications – for vitamins and pain and scar creams -- cost the New Jersey School Employees’ Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) $3,300 to $22,800 apiece, she said. All told, Nardachone and his accomplices defrauded the…
Feds In NJ Charge Doc, Wife With $1.3M Genetic Testing Scheme Feds In NJ Charge Doc, Wife With $1.3M Genetic Testing Scheme
Feds In NJ Charge Doc, Wife With $1.3M Genetic Testing Scheme COVID-19 hardly fazed a Rockland doctor who, with his wife, continued to collect bribes and kickbacks in exchange for ordering millions of dollars in genetic tests from his offices in Pennsylvania, a federal grand jury in Newark charged. Yitzchok “Barry” Kurtzer, 61,and Robin Kurtzer, 60, both of Monsey, collected monthly cash kickbacks and bribes ranging in exchange for “collecting DNA samples from Medicare patients and sending them for genetic tests to clinical laboratories in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,” Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael Honig said. The payoffs ranged up $5,00…
FEDS: Doctor's Employee Admits Role In $24.8M Kickback Scheme FEDS: Doctor's Employee Admits Role In $24.8M Kickback Scheme
Feds: Doctor's Employee Admits Role In $24.8M Kickback Scheme UPDATE: Dominoes continued to fall in the federal takedown of a $24.8 million kickback scheme when a Jersey City woman who worked for a local doctor took a plea deal. Yudelka “Vicky” Ayala, 42, admitted conspiring with six co-defendants associated with the now-defunct Prime Aid Pharmacy in Union City to boost prescription sales through kickbacks and bribes to health care professionals in New Jersey and New York. Prime Aid, which also had a location in the Bronx, processed expensive medications used to treat various conditions, including Hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis…
Feds: NJ Veterans Hospital Employee Caught On Camera Stealing $8.2M Worth Of HIV Meds Feds: NJ Veterans Hospital Employee Caught On Camera Stealing $8.2M Worth Of HIV Meds
Feds: NJ Veterans Hospital Employee Caught On Camera Stealing $8.2M Worth Of HIV Meds A now-former employee stole $8.2 million worth of HIV medications from  a New Jersey veterans hospital pharmacy that she sold to a fence from Bergen County, federal authorities said Wednesday. Surveillance video showed pharmacy technician Lisa M. Hoffman of Orange “regularly taking dozens of bottles of HIV medications" from the shelves of the outpatient pharmacy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in East Orange, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. The video then shows her “placing them in a white mail bin, and then transferring the medications from the mail bin to he…
Ex-Middlesex Officer Admits Recruiting Brothers In Blue For Multi-Million-Dollar Drug Scam Ex-Middlesex Officer Admits Recruiting Brothers In Blue For Multi-Million-Dollar Drug Scam
Ex-Middlesex Officer Admits Recruiting Brothers In Blue For Multi-Million-Dollar Drug Scam A former North Brunswick police officer admitted Monday that he cashed in on a multi-million-dollar health insurance scam by recruiting patients to obtain prescriptions for drugs they didn’t need. Daniel Passafiume, 45, of Monroe took a plea deal from federal prosecutors after an unidentified co-conspirator agreed to cooperate with the government, records show. Passafiume and the accomplice cut deals with pharmacies to collect large commissions for each prescription they delivered for “compounded medications,” including vitamins and pain creams, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. …
Hudson Pharmacy Owner's Son Admits Role In $99M Kickback Scheme Uncovered By Feds Hudson Pharmacy Owner's Son Admits Role In $99M Kickback Scheme Uncovered By Feds
Hudson Pharmacy Owner's Son Admits Role In $99M Kickback Scheme Uncovered By Feds The son of a former Union City pharmacy co-owner admitted his role Thursday in a multimillion-dollar scheme to boost prescription sales by paying kickbacks and bribes to health care professionals. Alex Fleyshmakher, 34, of Morganville, worked for his father, Igor Fleyshmakher of Holmdel, at Prime Aid in Union City. He was also an on-paper owner of Prime Aid Bronx, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Operating out of both locations, the now-defunct Prime Aid Pharmacies processed expensive medications used to treat various conditions, including Hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, and rheum…