Wayne Doc Got Kickbacks, Trips To Strip Clubs As Part Of Bribery Scheme: Authorities

WAYNE, NJ — A township doctor, his wife and another doctor are the latest people to be charged with accepting bribes for test referrals as part of a $100 million bribery scheme involving a North Jersey testing facility.

A federal grand jury returned a 16-count indictment charging Aiman Hamdan, 50, his wife Kristina Hamdan, 39, and Yousef Zibdie, 53, all of Wayne, with conspiring to commit wire fraud and for violating the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Federal Travel Act.

Aiman Hamdan is a cardiologist with a practice in Paterson. According to the indictment, from September 2008 to April 2013, he received from Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS) a $500,000 loan, a trip to Florida on a private jet to visit strip clubs and go fishing and other "items of value," Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick said in a news release. The gifts were given in exchange for generating millions of dollars of patient referrals to BLS Parsippany, Fitzpatrick said.

Before March 2006 and through April 2013, BLS routinely paid doctors in New Jersey and New York bribes as incentive to refer their patients to BLS for testing of blood samples, according to the indictment.

Zibdie is a doctor of internal medicine with a practice in Woodland Park. According to the indictment, he was bribed by Kristina Hamdan in exchange for generating more than $900,000 in business for BLS, the indictment states.

Zibdie and the the Hamdans each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count of wire fraud and five years on each anti-kickback and Federal Travel Act violation count.

The federal investigation has resulted in 45 guilty pleads, including 31 from doctors. The organizers have admitted that it involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in more than $100 million in Medicare and private insurance payments to BLS. It is believed to be the largest number of medical professionals ever prosecuted in a bribery case, Fitzpatrick said.

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