- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jeff Dale2023-05-18T18:57:00
A judge affirmed more than $487 million in penalties and damages against Cameron-Ehlen Group, operating as Precision Lens, and its owner Paul Ehlen after a jury found they filed tens of thousands of false claims to Medicare and violated the Anti-Kickback Statute.
The ruling of Judge Wilhelmina Wright of the District of Minnesota followed a February guilty verdict that found the defendants liable for paying kickbacks to ophthalmic surgeons to influence their use of Precision Lens products in Medicare-reimbursed cataract surgeries, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday in a press release.
The illicit inducements, per the DOJ, included private jet flights to destinations including Broadway shows in New York, the College Football National Championship Game in Miami, and the Masters golf tournament in Georgia. The defendants maintained a secret fund to finance the scheme, according to the DOJ.
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Steven King, the chief compliance officer of a defunct pharmacy holding company, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud for unnecessarily billing Medicare for more than $50 million in medical supplies.
Tenet Healthcare, Vanguard Health Systems, and the Detroit Medical Center agreed to pay $29.7 million as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice addressing allegations they provided kickbacks to doctors who made referrals to their health organizations.
Alaska-based telecommunications provider GCI Communications Corp. agreed to pay more than $40.2 million as part of a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice for alleged violations of the False Claims Act.
Three former executives of Chicago-based Outcome Health, a healthcare technology company, were sentenced for misleading an auditor, clients, lenders, and investors about a scheme to sell $45 million in overbilled advertisements.
A home health company operating in Indiana, Ohio, and Texas agreed to pay nearly $4.5 million to settle allegations it filed false claims by giving sports tickets and other kickbacks to assisted living facilities in exchange for referrals.
Crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank will pay a total of $63 million penalties to California and the Federal Reserve Board to settle charges that its anti-money laundering program failed to properly monitor more than $1 trillion worth of customer transactions.
