Indian national Chintan Anjaria, who is the proprietor of a marketing company in India, has entered a guilty plea for substantial healthcare fraud amounting to a staggering USD 11.5 million. The announcement was made by Attorney for the United States, Vikas Khanna, on Thursday.
Anjaria formally pleaded guilty on October 31, appearing before US District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz in Newark federal court, acknowledging the charges brought against him, which encompassed conspiracy to breach the Federal Anti-Kickback statute and conspiracy to commit health care fraud, as conveyed in a press release.
The sentencing for Anjaria has been scheduled for March 12.
According to court records, spanning from February 2017 to May 2022, Anjaria was intricately involved in a nefarious scheme rooted in kickbacks and bribery, in collaboration with orthotic brace supply firms, telemedicine enterprises, and testing laboratories, consequently leading to the submission of deceitful and spurious claims to Medicare.
Anjaria administered control over a marketing entity situated in India, which served as the nexus for him and his co-conspirators in identifying Medicare beneficiaries as prospective targets for orthotic braces and cancer genetic tests (CGX).
The employees associated with Anjaria's company would engage with beneficiaries, subjecting them to undue pressure, in order to secure their consent for receiving orthotic braces and/or CGX, regardless of whether there was a legitimate medical need, as stated by federal prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors advanced the claim that Anjaria and his company orchestrated the disbursal of kickbacks to telemedicine firms in exchange for procuring doctor's orders for orthotic braces and CGX tests. Subsequently, Anjaria was instrumental in diverting these doctor's orders to orthotic brace suppliers and testing laboratories located in the United States, with whom Anjaria and his company had established further agreements involving kickbacks.
The orthotic brace suppliers and laboratories, in turn, would forward claims for reimbursement to Medicare, following which a portion of the earnings was remitted to Anjaria and his company as compensation for the doctor's orders that had been generated as part of this intricate conspiracy.
In totality, Anjaria and his collaborators inflicted a loss amounting to over USD 11.5 million on Medicare, the press release disclosed.
