Bergen Owners Of North Jersey MRI Businesses Arrested In Illegal Kickback Scheme

The owners of several North Jersey MRI facilities are accused of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to doctors to refer patients to their businesses, state Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced Wednesday.

Ata “Danny” Chaudhry, 55, who owns MRNJ Newark, MRNJ Oradell, and Hudson Radiology Center of New Jersey, and Tariq Din, 48, both of Paramus, are accused of paying $850,000 to 15 doctors and professionals, and Dr. Kesnold Baptiste, 50, of Roselle, to refer patients to their facilities, Porrino stated in a news release.

Baptiste was arrested and charged with health care claims fraud, conspiracy, and commercial bribery for allegedly accepting payments from Chaudhry and Din, Porrino said.

“The type of kickback schemes that we are uncovering with our new commercial bribery task force have a corrosive impact on our healthcare system, leading patients to receive unnecessary diagnostic services and treatments, and ultimately inflating costs for everyone,” said Elie Honig, director of the state Division of Criminal Justice. “With these cases, we are sending a message to schemers in the industry that their crimes will be met with aggressive prosecution.”

Baptiste’s arrest is the result of investigations by the Attorney General’s Commercial Bribery Task Force. The task force was formed in January to target commercial bribery in the healthcare industry.

Chaudhry and Din previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, commercial bribery, and misconduct of a corporate official for allegedly paying the $850,000, Porrino stated.

The charges filed against Din and Chaudhry stem from two earlier investigations.

An investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Financial and Computer Crimes Bureau that led to the indictment of Dr. Manoj Patharkar and Mohammed Shamshair last August on charges that they used, hid, and laundered approximately $3.6 million in income from the doctor’s pain management clinics to evade taxes.

The other was Operation Rayscam, an investigation by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor that led to guilty pleas in May 2015 from Rehan Zuberi, his wife, and three other defendants in connection with commercial bribes that Zuberi paid to doctors in return for the referral of patients to his medical imaging centers.

Another chiropractor, Dr. Ronald Hayek, who practice is in Totowa, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, commercial bribery, and failure to pay taxes as a result of the task force’s investigation of Baptiste. Hayek admitted accepting tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Din and others in exchange for referring patients to them and their related medical facilities.

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Photos:

Ata “Danny” Chaudhry, 55, of Paramus

Tariq Din, 48, of Paramus

Dr. Kesnold Baptiste, 50, of Roselle

Dr. Ronald Hayek