Founded in 2006, SpineFrontier is a spinal device manufacturer based in Malden, Massachusetts. 57 year-old Dr. Kingsley R. Chin is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of the company. 36 year-old Aditya Humad is the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Earlier this month, the duo was arrested and charged in connection with a kickback scheme.
According to the District of Massachusetts branch of the United States Department of Justice, Chin and Humad bribed surgeons to use company products in exchange for sham consulting fees. Allegedly, the defendants paid surgeons between $32,000 and $978,000 in bribes during the conspiracy. The indictment is far from Chin’s first run-in with the law.
This YouTube video highlights the legal battles of the Fort Lauderdale-based surgeon. In 2018, a woman named Nancy Lazo sued Chin for failing to use “proper and appropriate surgical methods”. Her case, reveals the video, is one of over a dozen medical malpractice suits filed against the surgeon in Philadelphia and South Florida.
The Allegiant Experts team has a connection to this case.
We have been tracking cases where Chin has treated patients on letter of protection. While these patients will not be part of the DoJ indictment, he likely will no longer be able to practice if convicted. Collectively, Chin and Humad are charged with six counts of violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison alone.
The indictment states that the pair conspired to pay millions of dollars in bribes to surgeons in the form of sham consulting fees for work they did not perform. Chin and Humad allegedly bribed surgeons to use SpineFrontier’s products. In turn, the company received millions of dollars in revenue from surgeries the surgeons performed.
Surgeons were paid for using SpineFrontier’s products.
According to the DoJ report, “the defendants allegedly entered into contracts with surgeons, agreeing to pay the surgeons between $250 and $1,000 per hour for purported consulting for SpineFrontier. In reality, however, the defendants allegedly paid the surgeons for using SpineFrontier’s products.”
The indictment also alleges that Chin and Humad purported to design and use the surgeon-consulting program for gathering technical feedback. Instead, it was manipulated to push SpineFrontier’s products on surgeons through bribes they paid pursuant to that program. The products used during surgeries were paid for by federal health care programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and VHA.
Very little consulting was actually performed.
“It is further alleged that the surgeons frequently spent only a small fraction of their reported time, if any at all, performing actual consulting,” says the DoJ, “On numerous occasions the bribe amounts were determined following a review of the number of procedures a surgeon performed and the amount of revenue those procedures generated for SpineFrontier. The defendants allegedly paid each surgeon described in the indictment between $32,625 and $978,000 in bribes during the conspiracy.”
Are you an attorney working on a health care fraud case? Contact Allegiant Experts for assistance. We would be happy to schedule a complimentary consultation. Please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 407-217-5831. You may also email us at info@allegiantexperts.com.