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DOJ recovers funds from a medical kickback scheme

On Behalf of | Jun 13, 2022 | Uncategorized

A doctor was found liable for violating the False Claims Act by accepting millions in kickbacks. He agreed to repay $2.3 million to settle a civil lawsuit that alleged that the transfers violated the Federal Debt Collections Procedures Act. The doctor was not guilty of the criminal kickback violations.

Money transferred after a subpoena

The guilty criminal parties were found liable in 2018 for submitting false claims of Medicare and TRICARE. A subsequent judgment was entered against the three guilty parties for $114 million in 2021. One of the three was Floyd Calhoun Dent III, who transferred several million dollars to the doctor after receiving a subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General. The doctor did not perform anything to receive the money – Dent claimed it was repaying a childhood promise. Nevertheless, the doctor needed to return the funds and the silver and gold coins he paid for with a portion of the illegal gift.

“Individuals who receive the proceeds of fraudulent activity must return them,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “Recovering ill-gotten gains that have been transferred to third parties is an important component of the department’s commitment to combat fraudulent schemes involving taxpayer funds.”

Commissions on blood test sales were illegal

The settlement was announced on June 6, 2022. The money also goes to the liquidating trustee for the bankrupt Health Diagnostic Laboratories Inc. (HDL). HDL hired Dent as a marketer and paid his company commissions based on the number of blood tests sold, which violated the Anti-Kickback Statute. Dent and his fellow defendants got millions of dollars from submitting unnecessary blood tests.