FORT
LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A prominent Florida eye doctor once accused of
bribing Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey received a 17-year
sentence Thursday for stealing $73 million from Medicare by persuading
elderly patients to undergo excruciating tests and treatments they
didn't need for diseases they didn't have.
Dr.
Salomon Melgen was convicted of 67 crimes including health care fraud,
submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients' files.
Prosecutors showed that between 2008 and 2013, he became the nation's
highest-paid Medicare doctor, building his practice by giving elderly
patients unnecessary eye injections and laser blasts on their retinas
that some compared to torture.
Melgen, 63, was ordered to pay $42.6 million in restitution to Medicare and could be ordered to pay more in the future.
The
sentencing came after four days of hearings spread over December and
January, with prosecutors arguing he stole $136 million but his
attorneys insisting the proven total was $64,000. U.S. District Judge
Kenneth A. Marra said the evidence shows the theft was at least $73
million.
Source: Yahoo News
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