Two Chiropractors and Five Others
Charged with Insurance Fraud
On April 21, 1999, New Jersey Attorney General Peter Verniero announced that two chiropractors, the operator of a physical therapy business above one of the chiropractic offices, and three alleged "runners" were indicted for alleged roles in separate insurance fraud schemes involving computerized accident records illegally obtained from the Newark and North Bergen Police Departments,
The chiropractors and the operator of the physical therapy business were charged in one indictment, and the three alleged runners were charged in three separate indictments. The chiropractors' indictment, if proven, "is a schematic for an insurance fraud mill," Verniero said, "a doctor-controlled, top-to-bottom scheme using a corrupted police employee to purloin internal police data, a third party to make bribe payments and runners who exploited the stolen data to snare chiropractic patients." Named in the four-count indictment were:
* Robert Matturro, D.C., 38, of Fox Run, North Caldwell, who owns Matturro Chiropractic in Bloomfield and West New York Chiropractic Center in Union City
* Nicholas Rosania, D.C., 30, of Daniel Street, Rockaway, operator of Matturro's Union City office
* Annette Licea, 31, of Colombia Ave., North Bergen, who operates a physical therapy business above Matturro's Union City office.
The trio were charged with conspiracy in the second degree, computer theft in the third-degree, official misconduct in the second degree, and bribery in official matters in the second degree. The indictment states that between March 1 and Sept. 24, 1997, Rosania and Matturro conspired with Licea to give money to Licea to bribe an unnamed communications supervisor in the North Bergen Police Department. Licea paid the supervisor on four or more occasions to obtain the accident reports.
To carry out the scheme, Matturro instructed an unnamed unindicted conspirator to get "paperwork" from Rosania to use as leads to solicit patients for the West New York Chiropractic Center, according to the indictment. Rosania gave North Bergen Police Department accident reports to an unindicted conspirator twice in 1997, then gave money to Licea to pay the communications supervisor who supplied the computer records, the indictment states.
"We're targeting health care providers at the top of the fraud chain who pay public officials and police officers for patients with insurance coverage and all the schemers that help them," Assistant Attorney General and Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Edward M. Neafsey said. "This is the mandate we received from the legislature to clean up insurance fraud."
Three individual indictments related to 1998 activities were returned in the second alleged scheme:
* Cyrano Green, 39, of Mountain Way, West Orange is charged with one count of conspiracy in the second degree, one count of second-degree bribery in official matters, and six counts of third-degree bribery in official matters. Green is charged with conspiring to pay cash bribes to an unnamed City of Newark Police officer who, unbeknownst to Green, was working undercover with investigators now assigned to the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor. The officer received seven cash bribes totaling approximately $1,600 in return for turning over accident reports to Green on 17 occasions.
* Abagail Romero, 36, of New Street, Newark, is charged with one count of conspiracy in the second degree, one count of second-degree bribery in official matters, and four counts of third-degree bribery in official matters. Romero is charged with conspiring to pay five cash bribes to the undercover City of Newark Police officer in return for accident reports on 12 occasions and paying bribes totaling approximately $1,800 for them.
* James Lee Campbell, 46, of Lawrence Avenue, West Orange is charged in four counts with conspiracy in the second degree, and three counts of bribery in official matters the second degree. Campbell paid a total of $1,200 in cash to the undercover officer in return for accident reports on 15 occasions.
Each second-degree offense for which a defendant is convicted carries a maximum of 10 years in State prison and a fine of $100,000 to $150,000. Each third-degree offense for which a defendant is convicted carries a maximum of five years in State prison and a $15,000 fine. If convicted, each defendant's actual sentence would be based upon a variety of factors, including the severity of the crime as well as any aggravating and mitigating factors.
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