Trenton, New Jersey – United States Attorney Craig Carpenito reported that on 25th November 2019, a man from Bergen County in New Jersey admitted his role in schemes to commit health care fraud and to bribe a physician.
Eduard “Eddy” Shtindler, from Paramus, New Jersey, age 36, admitted guilty before Michael A. Shipp, the United States District Judge in Trenton federal court to an accusation charging him with one count of scheme to execute health care fraud and one count of scheme to reimburse bribes to a physician.
As per the court statements and documents filed in this case:
From 2012 through about 2017, Eduard Shtindler owned and ran the now inoperative Empire Pharmacy located in West New York, New Jersey. In 2015, Empire started prescribing prescriptions for expensive specialty drugs that needed “prior authorization” before being approved for compensation payment by Medical, Medicaid, and some private insurance providers. To lure medical physicians into using Empire to fill such medications, Eduard Shtindler arranged to have Empire get prior authorization approval more successfully than other pharmacies. He instructed his employees to frequently fake prior authorization forms for medications for different conditions, including Hepatitis C and psoriasis. Eduard Shtindler was recorded confessing to his and Empire’s practice of forging prior authorization forms in order to get approval for medication that would not have been approved otherwise.
Between 2012 and early 2017, Eduard Shtindler engaged in a scheme to pay illegal kickbacks to a psychiatrist based in Hudson County, New Jersey, to inveigle the physician to send prescriptions to Empire. Eduard Shtindler sent his employees to hand over the bribes to the physician. Sometimes, Eduard Shtindler hid cash bribes, in 100 U.S. dollars units, in pill bottles that were taken to the physician. In exchange for these pay-offs, the physician directed patients to obtain medications from Empire pharmacy, even though the patients used other pharmacies near their residences for all of their other prescriptions. In one of the captured conversations between Shtindler and a worried former Empire employee who had handed over a bribe to the physician on Eduard Shtindler’s behalf, Eduard Shtindler was recorded asking the employee if he thought the physician would go to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and rant himself out. In a separate conversation with the same former employee about the same topic of bribes, Eduard Shtindler had the employee hand over to the physician; Shtindler was captured telling the employee that he did not force him to do it, that he did not put a gun on his head, that they made money together. Shtindler then concluded that “It was business.”
According to his plea agreement, Eduard Shtindler accepted to lose amounts between 1.5 and 3.5 million U.S. dollars for every charged scheme to which he pleaded guilty.
The count of scheme to commit health care fraud have a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, and the count of scheme to pay illicit kickbacks have a maximum of 5 years imprisonment. Both offenses carry a fine of 250,000 U.S. dollars or twice the total gain or loss from the offense. Shtindler was sentenced on 24th March 2020.
United States Attorney Carpenito attributed the special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the guidance of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie in Newark, the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller, under the instructions of Comptroller Philip James Degnan, and the special agents of the Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, under the guidance of Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert, for the investigation that lead to Eduard Shtindler’s plea.
The United States Assistant Attorney Joshua L. Haber of the Health Care and the Government Fraud Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark represented the federal government in this case.
Violating the Controlled Substance Act, the False Claim Act, or the Anti-Kickback Statute are considered serious healthcare-related offenses and will either send you straight to prison or have you pay hefty fines. Besides, committing health care fraud by defrauding federally-funded health care programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Tricare are considered the gravest health care criminal offense.
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