Criminal Investigative Updates

Clifford Wayne Robertson, of Brenham, Texas, was charged with misappropriating federal grant funding during his tenure as the CEO and executive director of The Warrior’s Refuge, a nonprofit homeless shelter for veterans. Between February and April 2020, Robertson allegedly submitted applications for federal assistance to the VA and Department of Labor, resulting in the award of approximately $1.8 million in grant funds. According to the criminal information, Robertson allegedly did knowingly and intentionally embezzle a portion of the federal grants for unallowable personal expenditures and for counseling services that he never rendered to veterans. The VA OIG, Department of Labor OIG, and Texas Department of Public Safety conducted the investigation.

Dr. Donald Salzberg, of Avon, Connecticut, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release for receiving kickbacks in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. Salzberg was also ordered to pay $1.34 million in restitution to Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. In July 2022, Salzberg pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to receive kickbacks. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of over $3 million to Medicare and other insurance programs and companies. The VA OIG, the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigation, the Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the US Postal Inspection Service, and the Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration investigated this case.   

Dr. Kenneth Fishberger, of East Setauket, New York, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. It is alleged that from 2013 through 2019, Fishberger conspired with others, including a principal for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, and a salesperson for the company, to order hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans in exchange for kickbacks. It is further alleged that Fishberger and his co-conspirators used false diagnoses to order the unnecessary brain scans, for which a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies. In exchange, Fishberger was paid cash kickbacks of approximately $100 per test. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $650,000 to the VA. This case was investigated by the VA OIG, HHS OIG, FBI, IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division, Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, and Postal Inspection Service.

Dr. Vishnudat Seodat, of Mattituck, New York, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. It is alleged that he conspired with others to order hundreds of medically unnecessary transcranial scans in exchange for kickbacks. Seodat and his co-conspirators used false diagnoses to order the unnecessary brain scans, for which a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies, including private insurance companies, on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payment. According to the charging documents, the scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $1 million to Medicare and private insurance companies. The VA OIG, the Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the FBI, the IRS' Criminal Investigation's Boston Field Office, the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the US Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.     

Timothy Doyle, of Selden, New York, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. It is alleged he conspired to offer and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. Doyle allegedly conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial Doppler scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. Doyle and his co-conspirators allegedly created purported rental and administrative service agreements, making it appear that doctors were compensated for the company’s use of space and administrative resources of the ordering doctor’s practice based on fair market value. According to the charging documents, the scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. The VA OIG, the US Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the FBI Boston Division, the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division Boston Field Office, the US Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the US Postal Inspection Service Boston Division investigated this case.                

Dr. Vishnudat Seodat, of Mattituck, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. From approximately June 2013 through June 2019, Seodat conspired with others, including a principal for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler scans, to order hundreds of medically unnecessary scans in exchange for kickbacks. He used false diagnoses to order the scans, for which a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payment. In exchange, Seodat was paid kickbacks of approximately $100 per test. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $1 million to Medicare and private insurance companies. Sentencing is scheduled for March 11, 2025. The VA OIG, Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and US Postal Service investigated the case. 

Timothy Doyle, of Selden, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. For more than seven years, Doyle conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company, to enter kickback agreements with various doctors to order medically unnecessary brain scans. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. The VA OIG, the US Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the US Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the USPS Inspection Service investigated this case.

David Fuhrmann, of Port Jefferson, New York, was charged and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. Fuhrmann allegedly conspired with others from June 2013 through at least September 2020, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. According to charging documents, Fuhrmann and his co-conspirators agreed to offer and pay doctors kickbacks based on the number of TCD ultrasounds the doctors ordered. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. The VA OIG, HHS OIG, FBI, IRS’ Criminal Investigation Unit, Department of Labor Employee Benefit Security Administration, and US Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.

David Fuhrmann, of Port Jefferson, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. From 2013 to 2020, Fuhrmann conspired with others to enter into agreements with physicians to perform medically unnecessary transcranial doppler scans in exchange for bribes. The potential loss to VA is approximately $650,000. This investigation was conducted by the VA OIG, FBI, HHS OIG, US Postal Inspection Service, Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and IRS Criminal Investigation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 10, 2025.

Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, CEO of SpineFrontier, Inc., a Massachusetts-based medical device company, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Open Payments Program. Pursuant to the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, device manufacturers, like SpineFrontier, are required to report any payments or transfers of value to physicians, including spine surgeons. According to the charging documents, SpineFrontier offered surgeons the opportunity to engage in purported consulting on product development. Specifically, Chin directed his employees to report the payment of fees paid to a surgeon as consulting fees that were not compensation for actual consulting work. The VA OIG, Health & Human Services OIG, FBI’s Boston Division, and US Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division investigated this case.

James Rausch, a New York-based director for a mobile medical diagnostics company, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute and has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to provide kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. According to the charging documents, from approximately March 2015 through September 2020, Rausch and his co-conspirators agreed to pay doctors kickbacks based on the number of transcranial doppler (TCD) scans the doctors ordered. TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain. It is alleged that the scheme as a whole resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $27.2 million to the TCD company for the fraudulent claims. The VA OIG, Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation, Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.

James Rausch, a New York-based director for a mobile medical diagnostics company, pleaded guilty to conspiring to offer and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. From approximately March 2015 through September 2020, Rausch conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain. Rausch and his co-conspirators agreed to offer and pay doctors kickbacks based on the number of TCD ultrasounds the doctors ordered. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $27.2 million to the TCD company for the fraudulent claims. The VA OIG, Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.

Dr. Kenneth Fishberger, of East Setauket, New York, was sentenced to serve two years of supervised release, including one year of home confinement, for receiving kickbacks. Fishberger was a licensed medical doctor for more than 45 years. From approximately June 2013 through December 2019, he conspired with others, including a principal for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to order hundreds of medically unnecessary tests in exchange for kickbacks. TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in specific brain regions. Fishberger and his alleged co-conspirators used false diagnoses to order unnecessary TCD scans, then a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies, on behalf of the medical diagnostic company, for payment. In exchange, Fishberger was paid cash kickbacks. The scheme resulted in about $891,978 in fraudulent bills to government and private insurance companies. The VA OIG investigated this case with the Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation Division, Department of Labor, and US Postal Inspection Service.

Alexandra Gehrke and her husband, Jeffrey King, both of Phoenix, pleaded guilty for causing more than $1.2 billion of false and fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicare and other health insurance programs for expensive, medically unnecessary wound grafts that were applied to elderly and terminally ill patients. Between November 2022 and May 2024, Gehrke’s companies, Apex Medical LLC and Viking Medical Consultants LLC, contracted with medically untrained “sales representatives” to locate elderly patients, including hospice patients, who had wounds at any stage and order grafts from a specific distributor. Gehrke, through companies she owned and controlled, received over $279 million in illegal kickbacks from the distributor of the grafts in exchange for the orders. Gehrke in turn paid the sales representatives tens of millions of dollars in unlawful kickbacks. She then referred the patients to a company co-owned by King, which contracted with nurse practitioners to apply the grafts. King’s company fraudulently billed Medicare, TRICARE, CHAMPVA, and commercial insurance plans for the grafts. Gehrke and King agreed to pay restitution of $614,990,420 and $605,690,110, respectively, and forfeit over $410 million they obtained from the fraud. The VA OIG, US Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, and Department of Defense OIG Defense Criminal Investigative Service investigated this case.

Dr. Donald Salzberg, of Avon, Connecticut, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release for receiving kickbacks in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. Salzberg was also ordered to pay $1.34 million in restitution to Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. In July 2022, Salzberg pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to receive kickbacks. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of over $3 million to Medicare and other insurance programs and companies. The VA OIG, the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigation, the Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the US Postal Inspection Service, and the Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration investigated this case.   

Dr. Kenneth Fishberger, of East Setauket, New York, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. It is alleged that from 2013 through 2019, Fishberger conspired with others, including a principal for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, and a salesperson for the company, to order hundreds of medically unnecessary TCD scans in exchange for kickbacks. It is further alleged that Fishberger and his co-conspirators used false diagnoses to order the unnecessary brain scans, for which a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies. In exchange, Fishberger was paid cash kickbacks of approximately $100 per test. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $650,000 to the VA. This case was investigated by the VA OIG, HHS OIG, FBI, IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division, Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, and Postal Inspection Service.

Dr. Vishnudat Seodat, of Mattituck, New York, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. It is alleged that he conspired with others to order hundreds of medically unnecessary transcranial scans in exchange for kickbacks. Seodat and his co-conspirators used false diagnoses to order the unnecessary brain scans, for which a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies, including private insurance companies, on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payment. According to the charging documents, the scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $1 million to Medicare and private insurance companies. The VA OIG, the Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the FBI, the IRS' Criminal Investigation's Boston Field Office, the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the US Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.     

Timothy Doyle, of Selden, New York, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. It is alleged he conspired to offer and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. Doyle allegedly conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial Doppler scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. Doyle and his co-conspirators allegedly created purported rental and administrative service agreements, making it appear that doctors were compensated for the company’s use of space and administrative resources of the ordering doctor’s practice based on fair market value. According to the charging documents, the scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. The VA OIG, the US Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the FBI Boston Division, the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division Boston Field Office, the US Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the US Postal Inspection Service Boston Division investigated this case.                

Dr. Vishnudat Seodat, of Mattituck, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. From approximately June 2013 through June 2019, Seodat conspired with others, including a principal for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler scans, to order hundreds of medically unnecessary scans in exchange for kickbacks. He used false diagnoses to order the scans, for which a co-conspirator would submit claims to Medicare and other insurance companies on behalf of the medical diagnostic company for payment. In exchange, Seodat was paid kickbacks of approximately $100 per test. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $1 million to Medicare and private insurance companies. Sentencing is scheduled for March 11, 2025. The VA OIG, Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and US Postal Service investigated the case. 

Timothy Doyle, of Selden, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. For more than seven years, Doyle conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company, to enter kickback agreements with various doctors to order medically unnecessary brain scans. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. The VA OIG, the US Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the US Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and the USPS Inspection Service investigated this case.

David Fuhrmann, of Port Jefferson, New York, was charged and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. Fuhrmann allegedly conspired with others from June 2013 through at least September 2020, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. According to charging documents, Fuhrmann and his co-conspirators agreed to offer and pay doctors kickbacks based on the number of TCD ultrasounds the doctors ordered. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. The VA OIG, HHS OIG, FBI, IRS’ Criminal Investigation Unit, Department of Labor Employee Benefit Security Administration, and US Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.

David Fuhrmann, of Port Jefferson, New York, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. From 2013 to 2020, Fuhrmann conspired with others to enter into agreements with physicians to perform medically unnecessary transcranial doppler scans in exchange for bribes. The potential loss to VA is approximately $650,000. This investigation was conducted by the VA OIG, FBI, HHS OIG, US Postal Inspection Service, Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, and IRS Criminal Investigation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 10, 2025.

Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, CEO of SpineFrontier, Inc., a Massachusetts-based medical device company, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Open Payments Program. Pursuant to the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, device manufacturers, like SpineFrontier, are required to report any payments or transfers of value to physicians, including spine surgeons. According to the charging documents, SpineFrontier offered surgeons the opportunity to engage in purported consulting on product development. Specifically, Chin directed his employees to report the payment of fees paid to a surgeon as consulting fees that were not compensation for actual consulting work. The VA OIG, Health & Human Services OIG, FBI’s Boston Division, and US Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division investigated this case.

James Rausch, a New York-based director for a mobile medical diagnostics company, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute and has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to provide kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. According to the charging documents, from approximately March 2015 through September 2020, Rausch and his co-conspirators agreed to pay doctors kickbacks based on the number of transcranial doppler (TCD) scans the doctors ordered. TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain. It is alleged that the scheme as a whole resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $27.2 million to the TCD company for the fraudulent claims. The VA OIG, Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation, Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.

James Rausch, a New York-based director for a mobile medical diagnostics company, pleaded guilty to conspiring to offer and pay kickbacks to doctors in exchange for ordering medically unnecessary brain scans. From approximately March 2015 through September 2020, Rausch conspired with others, including two managers for a mobile medical diagnostics company that performed transcranial doppler (TCD) scans, to enter into kickback agreements with various doctors. TCD scans are brain scans that measure blood flow in parts of the brain. Rausch and his co-conspirators agreed to offer and pay doctors kickbacks based on the number of TCD ultrasounds the doctors ordered. The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills of approximately $70.6 million to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $27.2 million to the TCD company for the fraudulent claims. The VA OIG, Health and Human Services OIG, FBI, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.