Doctors Admit Accepting $100K Bribes from Parsippany Lab

Two New York doctors pleaded guilty Thursday to accepting bribes in exchange for test referrals connected to a Parsippany lab, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

Two 60-year-old Connecticut men, Richard Goldberg, of Weston, and Gary Leeds, of Greenwich, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark federal court to one count of accepting bribes.

They admitted to accepting thousands of dollars per month in cash between September 2010 and April 2013 for referring patient blood specimens to Parsippany-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC. 

They said in court that “they each accepted more than $100,000 in cash from BLS in exchange for referring at least a combined $1.8 million in lab business from their joint practice, Family Medical Group of Manhattan,” according to Fishman’s office. As part of their guilty pleas, they agreed to forfeit $108,000 each.

The guilty pleas are each punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing for both defendants is April 1, 2014.

In addition, 20 people have now pleaded guilty in connection with the bribery scheme. Organizers of this scheme admitted it involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in more than $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and various private insurance companies, according to Fishman’s office.

Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services “performed tests on the blood specimens of patients referred to BLS by doctors and then billed payers and others for those tests and related services,” according to court documents.

On April 9, federal agents arrested David Nicoll, 39 of Mountain Lakes; Scott Nicoll, 33 of Wayne, and a senior BLS employee and David Nicoll’s brother; and Craig Nordman, 35 of Whippany, a BLS employee and the CEO of Advantech Sales LLC. Advantech Sales is one of several entities used by BLS to make illegal payments. They were charged by federal complaint with the bribery conspiracy. Also charged with this complaint are the BLS company and Frank Santangelo, 44, of Boonton.

In June 2013, David and Scott Nicoll, Nordman and four other BLS associates of BLS pleaded guilty to charges related to the bribe scandal. Santangelo, a doctor, pleaded guilty in August 2013 to charges relating to his role in the scheme.

So far, 11 employees or associates of BLS and nine physicians have pleaded guilty for their roles in the bribery scheme. The investigation has recovered more than $6.5 million to date through forfeiture.

From around September 2010 to about April 2013, BLS paid Leeds and Goldberg bribes that exceeded $100,000 each in return for their referrals of “patient blood specimens to BLS that the lab used to submit claims to Medicare and the private payors and collect from those payors at least in or about $900,000, according to court documents.

Around Dec. 20, 2012, Medicare paid BLS money “for claims and related items submitted by BLS for blood testing on Medicare beneficiaries. A portion of the money paid by Medicare to BLS was for tests” BLS did on blood specimens referred by Goldberg “in return for bribe payments,” according to court documents. Around Jan. 1 this year, the same situation occurred with Leeds.

Scott Nicoll was a BLS employee from around 2009 through April 2013, and in January, he bribed Leeds and Goldberg with $3,000 each to refer their patients’ blood specimens to BLS for testing, according to court documents.

For Goldberg, he was involved in the bribery scheme from around September 2010 through April 2013. BLS paid Goldberg bribes that exceeded $100,000 in return for Leeds’ referrals of “patient blood specimens to BLS that BLS used to submit claims to Medicare and the Private payors and collect from those payors at least in or about $900,000.