Two Georgia men have been sentenced for their roles in a scheme to submit more than $522 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for medically unnecessary genetic tests, the Justice Department said in a May 5 news release.
Reyad Salahaldeen, of Buford, Ga., was sentenced to 151 months in prison and ordered to pay $84.6 million in restitution. Mr. Salahaldeen controlled four laboratories across New Jersey, Georgia and Texas through which he and co-conspirators paid kickbacks to marketers who solicited DNA samples from beneficiaries through telemarketing, door-to-door solicitation and health fairs, then obtained fraudulent lab requisition forms from physicians who had not treated or consulted with the patients. After learning of a warrant for his arrest, Mr. Salahaldeen attempted to flee to Mexico using another person’s identification before being apprehended at the border.
Mohamad Mustafa, of Duluth, Ga., was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $64.3 million in restitution for his role in paying kickbacks to marketers and helping create sham contracts to disguise the illegal payments. Of the $522 million billed, Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers paid approximately $84 million.
Eleven co-conspirators have also pleaded guilty and been sentenced, including three physicians: Vinit Patel, MD, and Jose Rodriguez Ospina, MD, each sentenced to 12 months in prison, and Nelson Giraldo, MD, sentenced to six months of house arrest and three years of probation. Two nurse practitioners also received prison sentences of 21 and 24 months respectively.
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