The mayor of a New Jersey town was acquitted of charges that he accepted payments in return for patient referrals from his medical practice to an imaging center, according to news coverage of the case.
Dr. Felix Roque, mayor of West New York, had been accused of participating in a pay-for-patients ring that was busted as part of what authorities called Operation RayScam. The ring was run by Rehan Zuberi, who operated several imaging centers in New Jersey and who pleaded guilty last year to charges that he paid doctors for referring patients to his imaging centers.
In a trial that concluded this week, Zuberi testified against Roque, stating that he personally bribed Roque at his mayor's office, paying $100 to $150 for each referral for an MRI scan and $50 for each CT scan.
But the jury in the trial apparently was not convinced of the government's case against Roque, with many of the state's witnesses having been arrested as part of Operation RayScam or having other legal problems, according to coverage of the trial by the Hudson County View. The jury acquitted Roque late on December 21.
