Cedar Grove Doctor Admits to Accepting Bribes from Lab

Three New Jersey doctors pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges they accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from a Parsippany-based laboratory as part of a long-running scheme operated by the lab, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Dennis Aponte, 46, of Cedar Grove, Claudio Dicovsky, 51, of Fort Lee, and Franklin Dana Fortunato, 63, of Montville, pleaded guilty to violating the Federal Travel Act by accepting bribes for the referral of blood specimens to Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC.

According to the guilty pleas, the doctors were paid kickback money by supplying blood specimens to the lab, which would then bill the federal healthcare system, Thomas O’Donnell, special agent in charge of the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Region covering New Jersey said.

“The doctors who pleaded guilty today admitted making decisions about the care they provided based on being paid in return for their referrals.” Fishman said in a release. “We will continue to seek out and punish those doctors and other medical professionals who put profit before patient care.”

Several BLS employees, including the lab’s president, as well as another New Jersey physician were arrested in April and charged with bribery conspiracy.

According to court documents, Dicovsky admitted to accepting bribes from BLS and then entering a sham lease agreement and service agreement in which he would be paid more than $5,000 a month. Between November, 2006 and August, 2009, Dicovsky received more than $224,000 in bribe payments from BLS, and BLS made more than $800,000 through testing on blood specimens referred by Dicovsky.

In a similar arraignment, Fortunato exchanged blood specimens from patients in his Montclair practice for more than $100,000 over the same period. BLS made $430,000 by testing blood specimens referred by Fortunato.

From October, 2012 to March, 2013, Aponte was paid approximately $3,000 per month in cash in return for blood specimens referred to BLS. The lab made more than $175,000 through testing on blood specimens referred by Aponte.

Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Ford; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge O’Donnell; IRS–Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Maria L. Kelokates, with the ongoing investigation leading to today’s guilty pleas.