A federal jury has convicted a New Jersey internal medicine physician on charges that she participated in a fraud in which an imaging center paid referring physicians for patient referrals, according to a story in the Star-Ledger.
After a three-week trial, Dr. Maryam Jafari was found guilty of three counts of conspiracy and two counts of violating the federal law prohibiting the payment of kickbacks for referrals, according to the article. She will be sentenced at a later time, but faces up to five years in prison on each charge.
Jafari is the latest physician to be convicted or plead guilty in connection with the scheme, which involved 16 healthcare practitioners in New Jersey who were accused of accepting kickbacks for referring patients to Orange Community MRI. The case was the subject of a highly publicized bust in December 2011 that involved 65 federal and local agents who raided healthcare sites referring patients to the center.
Authorities charged that Orange Community MRI began making payments for referrals as early as 2010. An indictment filed against Jafari claimed that in November 2011 she accepted a white envelope containing $1,965 in cash from a representative of the center who later began cooperating with authorities; the cash was allegedly payment for patients who received 13 MRI scans and five CT studies for the previous two months. She accepted another $420 in cash in December 2011, according to the complaint.
Jafari's attorney told the Star-Ledger that the payments were for consulting services that she provided to the director of Orange Community MRI regarding a business venture.
Jafari's first trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial in December 2012. Most of the defendants have pleaded guilty in the case, with Jafari being the 14th of 16 defendants who have been convicted, according to the newspaper.
