PARSIPPANY – A doctor with practices in Nassau County, New York, was charged with accepting bribes in exchange for test referrals as part of a long-running and elaborate scheme operated by Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS), 181 New Road, its president and numerous associates, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Bret Ostrager, 50, of Woodbury, New York, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Federal Travel Act, three substantive violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, and four substantive violations of the Federal Travel Act. Ostrager is scheduled to be arraigned before Judge Stanley Chesler on August 19, 2015.
Ostrager is the first defendant to be indicted in connection with the BLS bribery scheme. To date, 38 people – 26 of them doctors – 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. It is believed to be the largest number of medical professionals ever prosecuted in a bribery case. The investigation has to date recovered more than $11.5 million through forfeiture.
According to the indictment:
Between February 2011 and April 2013, Ostrager received monthly cash bribes of approximately $3,300.00 from BLS employees and associates. He periodically solicited and received from the BLS employees and associates tickets and meals that cost thousands of dollars. These additional bribes in response to specific requests from Ostrager included tickets to a New York Mets baseball game, a New York Knicks basketball game, a Katy Perry concert, a Justin Bieber concert, and the Broadway show “Newsies.” In exchange, Ostrager referred patient blood samples to BLS. Ostrager’s referrals generated approximately $909,000.00 in lab business for BLS.
If convicted, Ostrager faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison on each of the counts on which he is charged. Each count also carries a maximum $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert; IRS–Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen; and inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Maria L. Kelokates, with the ongoing investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph N. Minish and Danielle Alfonzo Walsman, Senior Litigation Counsel Andrew Leven, 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, Acting Chief of the office’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. 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 more than $635 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.
