Two Mercer County Men Sentenced to Prison for Kickback Scheme with Physicians

TRENTON—A federal judge yesterday sentenced two Hopewell Township men to 15 months in prison for tax evasion and conspiring to violate the federal anti-kickback statute by agreeing to pay doctors to refer blood work to a lab they operated, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., announced.

U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson also fined Asim Niaz, 49, and Taquir Khan, 50, $10,000 each and ordered them to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons by Sept. 15 to begin serving their prison sentences.

Both men pleaded guilty before Judge Thompson on March 24, 2008, to income tax evasion for failing to pay more than $150,000 in federal income taxes for the years 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1998. They pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count for conspiring with each other to pay doctors to refer blood work to Nu-Tek Nu-Tek Diagnostic Laboratories, a lab they operated in Langhorne, Pa.

In connection with the case, a medical group, Mercerville Medical Associates (MMA), pleaded guilty in April 2008 to obstructing a healthcare fraud investigation. Three of MMA’s doctors, Louis Tsarouhas, of Hopewell Township, Giacomo Mangiaracina, of Langhorne, Pa., and Brian Shaffer, of Pennington, pleaded guilty in April 2008 to tax evasion charges in connection the kickback scheme involving Nu-Tek. They admitted failing to pay taxes on cash payments they received from Niaz and Khan in return for referring blood work to Nu-Tek.

Marra credited Special Agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Julio La Rosa; Special Agents of the FBI’s Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun; and the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Keith Gordon, N.Y. Regional Office, with the investigation of the case.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna, Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division, in Newark.

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