NEWARK, N.J. – Demetrios Gabriel, 47, a pediatrician with a practice in Staten Island and Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for accepting bribes in exchange for test referrals as part of a long-running scheme operated by Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS), of Parsippany, New Jersey, its president and numerous associates.
Including Gabriel, 33 people – 22 of them physicians– have pleaded guilty in connection with the bribery scheme, which its organizers have admitted involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in more than $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and various private insurance companies.
Gabriel admitted he accepted bribes in return for referring patient blood specimens to BLS and was paid more than $4,500 per month. Gabriel received a flat fee of $3,000 per month in cash, plus additional cash based on the number of patient blood samples his pediatric practice referred to BLS each month. In addition, Gabriel received $1,500 per month through credit card payments to a restaurant he owns.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Stanley R. Chesler sentenced Gabriel to one year of supervised release and fined him $75,000.
The investigation has recovered more than $10.3 million to date through forfeiture.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, IRS–Criminal Investigation, and inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with the ongoing investigation leading to today’s guilty pleas.
The government is represented by Senior Litigation Counsel Andrew Leven, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Minish, and Jacob T. Elberg, Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Health Care and Government Fraud Unit in Newark, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Ward of the office’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit.
The bribery scheme was uncovered by the joint investigation led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which has recovered more than $620 million 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 since 2010.
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Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: White Collar Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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