TRENTON
- Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced
that a Perth Amboy man was sentenced to
state prison today for illegally soliciting
patients for Central Jersey Chiropractic
and Rehabilitation Centres (Central Jersey).
Jimmy
Tovar, 36, of Perth Amboy, was sentenced
to three years in state prison by Superior
Court Judge Bradley J. Ferencz in Middlesex
County. Tovar has been in custody since
his arrest in July 2011. Tovar also executed
a consent judgment for $1,854.70 in back
taxes owned from the money he made from
his “running” activities. Tovar’s
sentence was based on his March 16 guilty
plea to an accusation which charged him
with conspiracy to commit running activity,
acting as a runner, and failure to file
a tax return, all in the third degree.
In
pleading guilty, Tovar admitted that he
conspired to procure clients, patients or
customers in cooperation with a provider
whose purpose was to seek to obtain benefits
under an insurance contract for providing
services to the insured. Tovar admitted
that on 18 occasions in 2010, he accepted
between $500 and $9,000 from a provider
for the referral of people to Central Jersey.
Tovar
also admitted that in 2010, he was paid
$50,500 for soliciting people following
automobile accidents to treat at Central
Jersey and referring them to an attorney
to pursue a claim for pain and suffering
under a contract of insurance. Finally,
Tovar was charged with failing to file a
gross income tax return, FORM NJ-1040, with
the intent to defraud or evade payment of
New Jersey gross income tax for the tax
year ending 2010.
Tovar
was one of seven people charged by the Office
of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor in July
2011, following an investigation into suspected
running activities related to Central Jersey
Chiropractic and Rehabilitation Centres.
New
Jersey’s “anti-running statute,”
imposes criminal penalties for acting as
a runner or using, directing, or employing
a runner. The statute defines a runner as
a person who attempts to procure a patient
or client at the direction of and for a
health care professional or attorney in
exchange for a pecuniary benefit, when the
health care professional or attorney intends
to assert a claim against an insured person
or an insurance carrier for providing services
to the patient or client.
Deputy
Attorney General Steven B. Farman and Detectives
Michael Rasar and Natalie Brotherston were
assigned to the investigation. Farman represented
the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
at the sentencing. Acting Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi thanked the New
Jersey Department of the Treasury - Division
of Taxation, Assistant Chief of Criminal
Investigations Robert Conger, Supervising
Auditor Michael D. Mullane and Auditor William
Makar for their assistance in the investigation.
Acting
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Chillemi noted
that some important cases have started with
anonymous tips. People who are concerned
about insurance cheating and have information
about a fraud can report it anonymously
by calling the toll-free hotline at 1-877-55-FRAUD,
or visiting the Web site at www.NJInsurancefraud.org.
State regulations permit a reward to be
paid to an eligible person who provides
information that leads to an arrest, prosecution
and conviction for insurance fraud.
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