A pharmacy owner and his technician were sentenced last week to hefty fines and imprisonment for fraudulent medical claims, and after admitting that they had “plied doctors with trips to strip clubs and night clubs and cash to keep them as corrupt as possible”, according to the US Justice Department. They also have to pay back the money.
In court documents, owner of the business Kirtan Patel (34) of New Jersey, originally from India, admitted to submitting falsified documents to a health insurance company in response to an audit. The documents falsely claimed that medical providers had authorised certain prescriptions when they had not. Patel also submitted fraudulent prescription records claiming customers had picked up prescriptions when they had not.
During the scheme, Patel had texted a friend describing he had “billed around 8k-10k every month to … insurance” and “that’s basically free money”.
He also described treating doctors to “strip club visits, night clubs", and “cash, to keep them corrupt”. In total, he had caused losses of about $620 000 to health insurance companies.
Patel was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $620 000 in restitution and $620 000 in forfeiture.
His technician Christopher Lugo (36) admitted that in January 2020, he’d submitted a fraudulent claim to his own health insurer for a drug that had not been prescribed and had not been dispensed. In total, Lugo caused more than $565 000 in losses to health insurance companies and Medicare. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $565 000 in restitution.
In April 2025, Patel had pleaded guilty to making false statements relating to healthcare matters, and Lugo pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Hundreds charged in US multi-billion-dollar healthcare fraud crackdown
US pain clinics made millions from unnecessary jabs, court hears