Editor's note: Durkin said. “…I think he’s really a good guy whose life was out of control.” Attorney Durkin, this Shark believes this guy is not good...he is akin to the parasites in the Probate Court of Cook County. As long as these criminals are portrayed as "good guys" the Kawamotos, Solos and their clones will proliferate. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Doctor gets 6 months in jail in Medicare kickback scheme
A longtime Little Village doctor was sentenced to 6 months in prison Wednesday for his role in an elaborate Medicare kickback scheme at a now-shuttered Chicago hospital.
Dr. Subir Maitra, 74, became the first defendant sentenced in the alleged scheme at Sacred Heart Hospital on the city's West Side. FBI agents conducted a dramatic raid in April 2013, arresting the hospital’s CEO, administrators and several doctors.
The sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly was well below the approximately 2-year term sought by prosecutors. Maitra smiled as he left a courtroom that had been packed with family members and other supporters. He declined to comment to reporters.
Maitra admitted in a brief plea declaration earlier this year that he entered into an agreement in 2010 with then-hospital CEO Edward Novak to be paid $2,000 a month for teaching medical students at the hospital, payments he later surmised were actually kickbacks in return for referring patients to Sacred Heart. In all, he admitted collecting about $68,000 in ill-gotten benefits.
Maitra also pleaded guilty in a separate case first filed in Indiana that alleged he fraudulently billed insurance for patients he sent to surgery centers in northwest Indiana for medically questionable urological procedures.
One of those facilities, Lakeside Surgery Center, was owned at the time by Raghuveer Nayak, a fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and an associate of Maitra who was later convicted of secretly paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to physicians to have patients referred to his facilities.
Prosecutors said in a recent court filing that many of Maitra’s defrauded patients said they’d heard about him through Spanish-language radio ads paid for by Nayak.
Maitra’s attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, told the judge Wednesday his client was a “full-blown alcoholic” who for years got drunk on a daily basis. Maitra has already paid dearly for his mistakes, including losing his medical license, Durkin said.
“He’s a broken man,” Durkin said. “…I think he’s really a good guy whose life was out of control.”
In a court filing, prosecutors said Maitra’s drinking should not get him a break in his sentence.
“This means that, for a period of five years, Maitra was drinking daily to intoxication while also treating patients, performing delicate urological surgical procedures, and making medical decisions about patient care,” the filing said.
Novak and nine other hospital administrators and affiliated doctors have pleaded not guilty in the Sacred Heart investigation and are awaiting trial.
In February 2013, Maitra was secretly recorded by co-defendant Anthony Puorro, who was then the hospital’s chief operating officer, bragging about the number of surgeries he performed each week at Sacred Heart, according to court records.
A month later, when picking up one of his kickback checks, Maitra told Puorro he’d brought five “insurance cases” to the hospital in the past week alone, the records show.
jmeisner@tribune.com
Twitter: @jmetr22b
Dr. Subir Maitra, 74, became the first defendant sentenced in the alleged scheme at Sacred Heart Hospital on the city's West Side. FBI agents conducted a dramatic raid in April 2013, arresting the hospital’s CEO, administrators and several doctors.
The sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly was well below the approximately 2-year term sought by prosecutors. Maitra smiled as he left a courtroom that had been packed with family members and other supporters. He declined to comment to reporters.
Maitra admitted in a brief plea declaration earlier this year that he entered into an agreement in 2010 with then-hospital CEO Edward Novak to be paid $2,000 a month for teaching medical students at the hospital, payments he later surmised were actually kickbacks in return for referring patients to Sacred Heart. In all, he admitted collecting about $68,000 in ill-gotten benefits.
One of those facilities, Lakeside Surgery Center, was owned at the time by Raghuveer Nayak, a fundraiser for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and an associate of Maitra who was later convicted of secretly paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to physicians to have patients referred to his facilities.
Maitra’s attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, told the judge Wednesday his client was a “full-blown alcoholic” who for years got drunk on a daily basis. Maitra has already paid dearly for his mistakes, including losing his medical license, Durkin said.
“He’s a broken man,” Durkin said. “…I think he’s really a good guy whose life was out of control.”
In a court filing, prosecutors said Maitra’s drinking should not get him a break in his sentence.
Novak and nine other hospital administrators and affiliated doctors have pleaded not guilty in the Sacred Heart investigation and are awaiting trial.
In February 2013, Maitra was secretly recorded by co-defendant Anthony Puorro, who was then the hospital’s chief operating officer, bragging about the number of surgeries he performed each week at Sacred Heart, according to court records.
A month later, when picking up one of his kickback checks, Maitra told Puorro he’d brought five “insurance cases” to the hospital in the past week alone, the records show.
jmeisner@tribune.com
Twitter: @jmetr22b
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