Baltimore, MD – A notorious pain clinic kickback scheme has led to prison time for two key players. Konstantin Bas, 41, of Brooklyn, NY, and Mubtagha Shah Syed, 49, of Jersey City, NJ, were sentenced in connection with a scheme in which a Maryland pain management practice referred urine specimens to Bas’s testing lab in return for $1.37 million in kickbacks.
Chief U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar handed down the sentences, with Bas receiving a year and a day in prison, and Syed getting three months in prison, each followed by three years of supervised release. Bas was also ordered to forfeit $241,600 and pay a fine of $5,000, while Syed was ordered to serve the first three months of his supervised release in home detention with electronic monitoring, forfeit $23,400, and pay a fine of $4,000.
The scheme, which was uncovered through an investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, involved the referral of patients’ urine specimens from Advanced Pain Management Services (APMS) to Accu Reference, a medical testing laboratory owned by Bas, in exchange for kickbacks. According to court documents, Bas began using Syed to market his lab’s services in late 2010 or early 2011, and the two men agreed that Accu Reference’s profits from the urine toxicology tests would be equally divided between Accu Reference and APMS personnel.
However, unknown to Bas, Vic Wadhwa, APMS’s Chief Financial Officer, had agreed with Bas that he would receive $35 per specimen cup for the kickbacks, which was significantly lower than the amount of the kickbacks Bas would actually be paying. This allowed Wadhwa to skim off approximately 60% of the kickback payments for himself, as well as kickbacks for back braces to another company operated by Bas.
The investigation revealed that APMS referred between 700 and 1,300 patient urine specimens to Accu Reference each month from April 2011 through July 2012, resulting in payments of approximately $4.4 million from Medicare and private insurers for testing the specimens. Bas’s companies paid kickbacks totaling approximately $1.37 million to Wadhwa and his co-conspirators.
The sentencing was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur, along with several other law enforcement officials. The investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Office of Investigations, Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Office of the Inspector General.
The case serves as a reminder of the importance of transparency and accountability in the healthcare industry, and the need for law enforcement agencies to remain vigilant in their efforts to root out corruption and fraudulent activities.
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Key Facts
- State: Maryland
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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