In a substantial crackdown on healthcare improprieties, a Brooklyn cardiologist has been sentenced to over three years in prison after pleading guilty to a scheme that involved health care fraud and paying bribes for patient referrals. As reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Niranjan Mittal, of Brooklyn, New York, was handed a 37-month sentence by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams for his involvement in a scheme that capitalized on the trust between patients and their medical providers, according to Federal prosecutors.
According to court documents, the fraud perpetrated by Mittal began as early as 2016 at his medical clinic, which primarily served individuals with limited financial resources and was largely funded by government healthcare programs. Over several years, Mittal and his staff paid physicians, disguising the payments as rental fees for office space, to refer patients who were then subjected to unnecessary medical procedures, including bogus vascular interventions. These procedures were neither medically necessary nor beneficial to the patients’ conditions, but they generated significant profits by allowing the clinic to bill insurers for over $40 million between 2016 and 2023. In reality, the payments were illegal kickbacks made in exchange for patient referrals. "Mittal abused that trust, turning his offices into 'patient mills' and subjecting trusting patients to procedures they did not need," U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a press release.
Following the sentencing, Mittal was ordered to serve two years of supervised release and to forfeit all proceeds linked to his criminal conduct. Mr. Clayton praised the extensive investigative work that led to the charges, recognizing the contributions of multiple agencies, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation division, and Homeland Security Investigations under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The prosecution was led by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick R. Moroney, Matthew Weinberg, Ryan B. Finkel, and Brandon C. Thompson overseeing the complex legal proceedings against Mittal.
