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Kurtzer Kickback Scheme Exposed
New Jersey authorities have charged Dr. Yitzchok ‘Barry’ Kurtzer, 61, and his wife, Robin Kurtzer, 60, both of Monsey, New York, with participating in a scheme to solicit and receive kickbacks and bribes in exchange for ordering genetic tests, according to a recent indictment.
As a primary care physician with separate offices in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, area, Yitzchok Kurtzer allegedly solicited and received monthly cash kickbacks and bribes in exchange for collecting samples from Medicare patients and sending them for genetic tests to clinical laboratories in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The cash kickbacks ranged up to $5,000, and the Kurtzers typically accepted the cash in one of Yitzchok Kurtzer’s offices, at times behind locked doors.
According to documents, the Kurtzers used their employees, including Amber Harris and Shanelyn Kennedy, who each helped collect the DNA swabs in exchange for payments to them. Robin Kurtzer was recorded admitting that Harris and Kennedy should not have to be ‘bribed’ to do their work, but Robin Kurtzer said that she had no trouble ‘giving them money’ as long as they produced results.
The indictment contains charges of kickback conspiracy, violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, illegal remunerations for referrals to laboratories, travel act, and health care fraud. The kickbacks, illegal remunerations, and health care fraud charged in Counts 2 through 7 and 11 are each punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison.
As a result of these schemes, Medicare was billed over $1.3 million for tests generated from Yitzchok Kurtzer’s practice. Even as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic substantially reduced in-patient visits, the Kurtzers continued their scheme.
Yitzchok Kurtzer was previously recorded saying, “Perfect. Didn’t short me,” after accepting a $5,000 cash kickback. Two of Yitzchok Kurtzer’s employees, Amber Harris and Shanelyn Kennedy, have each previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the kickback scheme, and Lee Besen and Kimberly Schmidt have also each previously pleaded guilty for a related cash-for-genetic tests scheme.
The Kurtzers’ scheme was not limited to cash kickbacks and bribes. They went from receiving hand-delivered cash kickbacks and bribes to accepting payments by wire and through a cell phone money-transfer app. Yitzchok Kurtzer also offered to pay one of his employees to collect genetic test swabs from all of his patients who lived in nursing homes.
The indictment alleges that Yitzchok Kurtzer correlated genetic test swab collection to bribe and kickback payments, regardless of medical necessity. He instructed his staff to stop collecting genetic test swabs when he missed receiving a bribe and kickback payment, and he increased the volume of genetic test swabs when the kickback and bribe payments resumed. He admitted in a recording that he provided a patient false information to get the patient to agree to be swabbed for a genetic test. And unless a patient actively sought their genetic test results, Yitzchok Kurtzer failed to review or otherwise use those results.
Key Facts
- State: New Jersey
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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