North Texas Residents Indicted For Illegal Kickback Conspiracy

PLANO, Texas – Three North Texas residents have been indicted for conspiring to pay for patient referrals in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown. The judge unsealed the indictment Tuesday.

The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting, or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by federally-funded programs, including Medicare, TRICARE, and Medicaid. The Anti-Kickback Statute intends to ensure no compromise for medical providers’ judgments by improper financial incentives and bases decisions on the best interests of their patients.

Sultan Satar Sattar, 64, and his wife Bibi Zabeda Sattar, 61, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Jeffrey Paul Cornwell, a/k/a “Boomer,” 43, of McKinney, Texas, were indicted by a federal grand jury on December 11, 2019. The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to make an unlawful kickback arrangement involving payments for the referral of federal health care beneficiaries, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.

According to the indictment, the illegal arrangement concerned the referral of testing services to clinical laboratories located in Richmond, Virginia, and Frisco, Texas, in exchange for per-test compensation.
They arraigned the Sattars on December 30, 2019, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly Priest Johnson. Cornwell’s initial appearance took place on January 7, 2020, also before Judge Johnson.
If convicted, the Sattars and Cornwell each face up to 5 years in federal prison.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the State of Texas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit are investigating the case. The Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank Coan and Nathaniel Kummerfeld are prosecuting the case.

It is important to note that an indictment should not be considered as evidence of guilt and that all persons charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.