Politics & Government

Doctors From Greenwich, Weston Plead Guilty In Bribe Case



Two doctors - one from Greenwich, the other from Weston - with a practice in New York admitted today to accepting bribes in exchange for test referrals as part of a long-running and elaborate scheme operated by Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS), of Parsippany, N.J., its president and numerous associates, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

According to a statement issued bythe U. S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, Richard Goldberg, 60, of Weston, and Gary Leeds, 60, of Greenwich., each pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark federal court to one count of accepting bribes.

Including Goldberg and Leeds, 20 people have now pleaded guilty in connection with the bribery scheme, which its organizers have admitted involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in more than $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and various private insurance companies.

According to documents filed in this and related cases and statements made in court:
During today’s guilty plea proceedings, Goldberg and Leeds admitted to accepting thousands of dollars per month in cash between September 2010 and April 2013 in return for referring patient blood specimens to BLS. The pair acknowledged they each accepted more than $100,000 in cash from BLS in exchange for referring at least a combined $1.8 million in lab business from their joint practice, Family Medical Group of Manhattan.

As part of their guilty pleas, Goldberg and Leeds each agreed to forfeit $108,000.

On April 9, 2013, federal agents arrested David Nicoll, 39, of Mountain Lakes, N.J., Scott Nicoll, 33, of Wayne, N.J., a senior BLS employee and David Nicoll’s brother, and Craig Nordman, 35, of Whippany, N.J., a BLS employee and the CEO of Advantech Sales LLC – one of several entities used by BLS to make illegal payments. They were charged by federal complaint with the bribery conspiracy, along with the BLS company and Frank Santangelo, 44, of Boonton, N.J. In June 2013, David and Scott Nicoll, Nordman and four other associates of BLS pleaded


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