Richard Shusterman Gets 18 Years in $242M Hospital Debt Scam

Baltimore, Maryland — Richard Shusterman, 53, of Highland Beach, Florida, was sentenced today to 18 years in federal prison for masterminding a $242 million wire fraud conspiracy that preyed on investors seeking returns from portfolios of hospital patient debt. U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar handed down the sentence, calling Shusterman the ringleader of a fraudulent operation that never collected the debts it claimed would repay investors. The court also ordered Shusterman to pay $171,383,834 in restitution and forfeit $242,485,254.

On May 2, 2016, a federal jury convicted Shusterman after a 22-day trial, marking him as the final defendant sentenced in the sprawling scheme. Judge Bredar enhanced the sentence, citing Shusterman’s role as the organizer of the criminal enterprise. He has remained in federal custody since his conviction. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, with investigative support from the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.

Shusterman served as president and shareholder of International Portfolio, Inc. (IPI), a Pennsylvania-based firm that claimed to specialize in buying and collecting delinquent medical accounts. Alongside co-conspirator Robert Feldman, Shusterman purchased over $4.1 billion in past-due patient debt from hospitals between December 2006 and June 2008—paying just $25 million. Investors were told these portfolios generated returns through aggressive collections. In reality, the operation was a shell game.

The fraud deepened when Shusterman partnered with Jonathan Rosenberg and Douglas Kuber of Account Receivable Services, LLC (ARS) in New York. ARS sold investment packages tied to IPI’s debt bundles, promising high fixed returns. But instead of funding collections, new investor money was funneled back to pay earlier investors and cover hidden commissions. Shusterman inflated portfolio prices by 5% to 10% and kicked the excess proceeds to Rosenberg and Kuber—money falsely presented as clean loans secured by real assets.

U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, who announced the sentence, stated, “Richard Shusterman and his co-conspirators perpetrated a brazen and complex Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $242 million. The conspirators pretended that they were repaying investors with revenue earned by collecting debts, but they were really using the money of new victims to repay previous investors.”

The fallout from the scheme left hundreds of investors wiped out, their cash funneled into offshore accounts, luxury spending, and opaque shell companies. With restitution set at over $171 million and forfeiture exceeding $242 million, federal authorities say they will pursue every asset tied to Shusterman’s ill-gotten empire. The case stands as a stark warning of how financial predators exploit the promise of steady returns in opaque markets.