Two Connecticut doctors with a joint practice in New York are headed to prison for getting thousands of dollars in a long-running bribes-for-test referrals scheme involving a New Jersey lab company.
Federal prosecutors say 65-year-old Richard Goldberg, of Weston, and 61-year-old Gary Leeds, of Greenwich, were each sentenced Tuesday to 20 months in prison. Goldberg also will have to serve three years of supervised release once he’s freed and pay a $5,000 fine, while Leeds must serve one year of supervised release and pay a $15,000 fine.
The two physicians also must each forfeit $108,000.
Both doctors had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes. Each man admitted accepting more than $100,000 in cash between September 2010 and April 2013 in return for referring patient blood specimens to Parsippany-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services.
Prosecutors say the doctors referred at least a combined $1.8 million in lab business from their joint practice, Family Medical Group of Manhattan.
Thirty-eight people — including 26 physicians — have pleaded guilty so far in connection with the bribery scheme. Its organizers have admitted the scheme involved millions of dollars in bribes and resulted in more than $100 million in payments to the company from Medicare and various private insurance companies.
The investigation has recovered more than $11 million so far through forfeiture.
Several people connected with the lab have pleaded guilty, including president and part-owner David Nicoll and his brother, Scott, a senior employee.
