Following a seven-week trial, five defendants, including hospital and laboratory executives, have been found guilty in a kickback conspiracy.
The defendants are:
- Susan L. Hertzberg, 65, of New York City
- Matthew John Theiler, 57, of Mars, Pa.
- David Weldon Kraus, 65, of Loudon, Tenn.
- Thomas Gray Hardaway, 51, of San Antonio
- Jeffrey Paul Madison, 48, of Georgetown, Texas
The defendants were convicted for their roles in a conspiracy where physicians were motivated to refer patients to two rural Texas hospitals, Rockdale-based Little River Healthcare and Stamford-based Stamford Memorial Hospital, and a connecting lab, Boston Heart Diagnostics in Framingham, Mass., for kickbacks disguised as investment returns. Marketers were also incentivized to set up and recommend service orders from said facilities, according to a Nov. 30 Justice Department news release.
"Patients should be able to trust that their physicians are ordering tests and making laboratory referrals based on what is best for the patient, and not because the physicians are looking to pad their pockets with profits from kickbacks," U.S. Attorney Damien Diggs said in the release.
Along with 13 others, the five defendants were originally indicted for conspiring to commit illegal remunerations on Jan. 12, 2022. The defendants face up to five years in federal prison, with a sentencing hearing to be scheduled following the completion of a U.S. Probation Office presentence investigation.