The mayor of a New Jersey town has pleaded not guilty to charges of healthcare fraud for allegedly taking payments to refer patients to an imaging firm that's been at the center of a wide-ranging federal investigation.
West New York Mayor Felix Roque was charged with taking $250,000 in payments for referring patients from his pain relief center to imaging facilities operated by Rehan Zuberi, who pleaded guilty in May to charges of paying millions of dollars to referring physicians for Medicare referrals. Roque pleaded not guilty of the charges on July 27, according to an article on NJ.com.
Roque is the highest-profile defendant in the case, known as Operation RayScam, which has also snared more than a dozen New Jersey healthcare practitioners. Investigators believe Zuberi also donated money to Roque's election campaigns, according to the article. Roque's next hearing has been scheduled for September.
