NEWARK, N.J. - A doctor practicing family medicine in East Orange, New Jersey, was sentenced today to nine months in prison for receiving cash kickbacks for diagnostic testing referrals and failing to file tax returns on almost $1 million in income over a three-year period, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Yash Khanna, 73, of Livingston, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to a six-count superseding indictment charging him with conspiracy to violate the federal health care anti-kickback statute; soliciting and receiving more than $10,000 in illegal cash kickbacks for patient referrals in violation of the anti-kickback statute; and failing to file tax returns for tax years 2008, 2009 and 2010. Judge Cecchi imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From 2009 through 2011 Khanna owned and operated his own medical practice, Family Medicine and Pediatrics LLC. He agreed with representatives of diagnostic testing facility Orange Community MRI LLC (Orange MRI) to accept cash in exchange for Medicare and Medicaid patient referrals. Khanna admitted meeting with an Orange MRI representative at his office on Oct. 4, 2011, Nov. 10, 2011, and other occasions to receive envelopes containing cash kickbacks.
Khanna also admitted to earning income of more than $381,000 in 2008, $400,000 in 2009, and $214,000 in 2010. He intentionally failed to file tax returns or ask for extensions during those years.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Cecchi sentenced Khanna to serve one month of house arrest and three years of supervised release. He was fined $30,000 and ordered to forfeit $10,400.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert; special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen; and criminal investigators with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Deputy Chief Scott B. McBride of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Economic Crimes Unit and Deputy Chief Joseph G. Mack of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Health Care and Government Fraud Unit.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman reorganized the health care fraud practice at the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office shortly after taking office, including creating a stand-alone Health Care and Government Fraud Unit to handle both criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions of health care fraud offenses. Since 2010, the office has recovered more than $635 million in health care fraud and government fraud settlements, judgments, fines, restitution and forfeiture under the False Claims Act, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and other statutes.
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Defense counsel: Christopher L. Patella Esq., Bayonne, New Jersey
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
