Hudson doctor who helped feds in Umdnj probe gets home confinement

ONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: A Secaucus cardiologist who helped a federal investigation of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey must spend four months under home confinement for collecting $590,000 for what essentially was a no-show job.

Jerry DeMarco

10/08/2011 2:10 a.m.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler put Bakul Desai on two years’ probation and ordered him to pay a $5,000 fine.

Desai, a 58-year-old former part-owner of the Heart Center of New Jersey, pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges in February 2008 as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors in Newark.

He told Chesler he participated in a clinical assistant professor program to help university officials increase their number of cardiac surgery patients in order to keep its state accreditation as a Level I Trauma Center.

Desai said he didn’t teach, lecture or assist the university in other areas, despite a signed contract. Instead, he said, he referred patients for procedures and regularly collected a check.

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