Crime & Safety

Lakewood Pharmacist Charged in Kickback Scheme With Toms River Doctor

Charges: physician bribed $50K in prescription kick-back scam

A pharmacist with a compounding pharmacy in Lakewood was arrested Thursday and charged with paying more than $50,000 to a Toms River physician to induce the doctor to make prescription referrals to the pharmacy, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

The physician was identified in the criminal complaint only as "MD-1."

The pharmacist, Vladimir Kleyman, 42, of Lakewood, is the president and pharmacist in charge of Prescriptions R US – a compounding pharmacy in Lakewood. He was charged with violating the federal Anti-Kickback Statute by using a middle-man to provide repeated cash payments – totaling at least tens of thousands of dollars – to the physician over the course of several months.

Kleyman appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Clark III in Newark federal court Thursday afternoon, a statement from U.S. Attorney's office said.

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According to the criminal complaint, beginning in Feb. 2013, Kleyman provided one of his employees with at least $50,000 in cash or checks to provide bribes to the physician to refer prescriptions for a compounded pain cream to Prescriptions R US.

According to the statement from the U.S. Attorney's office, pharmacy compounding describes the preparation of medication, using different types and dosages of drugs, in order to provide more personalized medications for patients. The compounded pain cream prepared by Prescriptions R US in this case contains several components, including ketamine, lidocaine, and diclofenac.

Authoities charge that a computer-generated document prepared by Kleyman or someone working with him, and purporting to reflect the names of 63 patients for whom prescriptions for the pain cream had been sent by the bribed physician referenced in the complaint, included at least 33 Medicare beneficiaries for whom Prescriptions R US had received reimbursement from Medicare for prescriptions referrals from the bribed physician.

In 2013, the complaint alleges, Prescriptions R US obtained more than $40,000 from Medicare alone in connection with filling prescriptions for the bribed physician referenced in the complaint – separate and apart from additional money Prescriptions R US obtained from other health care insurance providers.

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In a series of meetings in November and December 2013, the unidentified employee received more than $50,000 in cash or checks from Kleyman or Kleyman’s spouse – who also works at Prescriptions R US – with the understanding that the bulk of that money would be used to bribe the physician to make prescription referrals to Prescriptions R US, authorities claim.

Fishman credited the health care fraud practice at the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office with helping to crack the case. Fishman reorganized the practice after taking office.


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