Steven Monaco, 40, was accused of leading two related scams that defrauded public health insurance plans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey.
In one scheme, the Sewell man arranged for kickbacks with a doctor, Daniel Oswari, that allowed Monaco to receive $36,000 in commissions as a sales representative for a medical diagnostic laboratory between late 2013 and 2016.
In addition, Monaco and a pharmaceutical sales representative, Richard Zappala, duped insurance plans, including those for New Jersey state and local government plans, into paying for costly compounded prescription medications between 2014 and 2016, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
Monaco and Zappala took a share of insurers’ payments to compounding pharmacies for the unnecessary prescriptions, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
They paid Oswari and other medical professionals to sign prescriptions, and also paid participants to identify and recruit patients with vulnerable insurance plans, it said.
“As a result of this scheme, Monaco received approximately $350,000 and caused a loss of over $4.6 million to the insurance plans,” the statement said.
Monaco was initially charged in 2019 with two doctors — Oswari, of Bordentown, and Michael Goldis of Mount Laurel — and medical assistant Aaron Jones of Willingboro.
Oswari pleaded guilty in December 2019 to fraud and kickback charges. Goldis admitted guilt in June 2020 to making false statements relating to health care matters. And Jones pleaded guilty to health care fraud conspiracy in March 2022.
Zappala pleaded guilty in September 2017 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
A fifth participant — Goldis’ physician assistant Jason Chacker of Feasterville, Pennsylvania — pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in October 2019.
Oswari, Goldis, Chacker, and Zappala await sentencing.
