HACKENSACK, NJ (June 21, 2017)
Yesterday, US District Court Judge William H. Walls sentenced the Bergen County doctor to 41 months in state prison. Bernard Greenspan, 79, of River Edge, has until September 21 to turn himself in given his current state of health. After the prison term, Greenspan also has to go through a year of supervised release. As for monetary sentencing, the judge has called for a forfeiture of $203,693 along with a fine of $125,000.
Greenspan was convicted after an 11-day trial on March 6, 2017 in Newark federal court. He was charged and convicted to the following:
– One count of conspiring to commit violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, Federal Travel Act, and wire fraud.
– Three violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute.
– Three violations of the Federal Travel Act.
– Three violations of wire fraud.
Between March 2006 and April 2013, Greenspan received payments, bribes, for test referrals to Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS). He received around $200,000 in payments often masked as rent, consultant payments, service agreements or even throwing office parties for Greenspan’s staff. At one point, Greenspan secured a job at BLS for a woman with whom he was in an extramarital relationship.
The amount of money in profits that BLS acquired from Greenspan’s referrals totalled about $3,000,000 million. BLS, formerly located in Parsippany, was involved in a major bribery scheme that is now under investigation and has already led to 44 convictions, nearly three quarters of which were doctors. The company plead guilty, and its co-founders began to testify on June 28, 2016 following the forfeiture of all its assets
Despite the defense’s efforts to appeal to the judge on behalf of Greenspan’s health and age, Greenspan will be serving prison time for his crimes.
Newark FBI Field Office’s Special Agent Timothy Gallagher released a firm statement saying, “Bernard Greenspan decided to accept bribes in exchange for referrals and deprived patients of their right to honest services. These types of kickback arrangements cripple the healthcare industry and severely impact patient care.”
