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Zachary Ohebshalom, 34, was the second of five defendants to take a plea deal from federal prosecutors, less than a month after Estela Arco-Blaustein, 55, of Mahwah pleaded out in U.S. District Court in Newark for her role in the scheme.
Still facing charges is Dr. Mark Filippone, 71, of Wallington.
Their scheme to fill bogus prescriptions for medically unnecessary pain creams for hundreds of now-former U.S. Postal Service employees caused losses of nearly $3.5 million, the government said.
Filippone saw the workers, some of them coming from as far as Florida and Georgia, federal prosecutors said. Then he submitted bogus reports that allowed them to file phony disability claims for injuries they purportedly suffered on the job, they said.
Filippone also prescribed the “expensive but medically unnecessary, pain creams” Carpenito said.
Arco-Blaustein last month pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to a single count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.
Ohebshalom pleaded guilty in the same courtroom on Tuesday to conspiring to violate the federal anti-kickback statute.
Both could testify against the others or become leverage for federal prosecutors trying to secure additional plea deals from any or all of them.
U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton scheduled Arco-Blaustein’s sentencing for April 22, although that could be extended depending on how the case progresses. She scheduled Ohebshalom for May 21.
Carpenito credited the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Department of Labor, and special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation with assembling the case.
Securing both plea deals was Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua L. Haber of Carpenito’s Healthcare Fraud Unit in Newark.
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