Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC, Physician Bribery, New Jersey 2023

NEWARK, N.J. – Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS), a Parsippany, New Jersey clinical lab, has pleaded guilty to operating a long-running and elaborate test referral scheme. The company’s president and numerous associates have admitted to the scheme, which involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in over $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and various private insurance companies.

The scheme, which has been described as the largest number of medical professionals ever prosecuted in a bribery case, has resulted in 40 guilty pleas – 26 of them from doctors. The investigation has recovered over $12 million through forfeiture.

BLS pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark federal court to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Federal Travel Act and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. As a result, the company must forfeit all of its assets.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Timothy Gallagher; inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Cynthia Shoffner; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert; and IRS–Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen, with the ongoing investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph N. Minish, Danielle Alfonzo Walsman, and Jacob T. Elberg, Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Health Care and Government Fraud Unit in Newark, as well as Barbara Ward, Acting Chief of the office’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit.

U.S. Attorney Fishman reorganized the health care fraud practice at the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office shortly after taking office, including creating a stand-alone Health Care and Government Fraud Unit to handle both criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions of health care fraud offenses. Since 2010, the office has recovered over $1.29 billion in health care fraud and government fraud settlements, judgments, fines, restitution and forfeiture under the False Claims Act, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and other statutes.

The defense is represented by Steven Backfisch Esq., of Westfield, New Jersey.

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