Indian-Origin CFO Sentenced to Four Months in Jail for Bribing Surgeons
Former SpineFrontier executive admitted conspiring to pay sham consulting fees to surgeons to influence their use of the company’s medical devices
WASHINGTON, Aug 11: An Indian origin former chief financial officer of spinal implant company SpineFrontier has been sentenced to four months in federal prison for conspiring to bribe surgeons to use the company’s products, US authorities said.
Aditya Humad, 41, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was also ordered to serve one year of supervised release and pay a USD 9,500 fine following his conviction for conspiracy to violate the federal anti-kickback statute.
Humad pleaded guilty to the charge after prosecutors accused him of helping arrange more than USD 540,000 in improper payments to surgeons through consulting agreements for services that were allegedly not performed.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the payments were designed to encourage physicians to use SpineFrontier’s spinal implants during surgeries. The company subsequently generated millions of dollars in revenue from procedures involving its products.
Humad was indicted in September 2021 alongside SpineFrontier founder, president and CEO Kingsley R. Chin as part of a federal investigation into the company’s physician payment practices.
Prosecutors said SpineFrontier entered into contracts with surgeons that purportedly paid between USD 250 and USD 1,000 an hour for technical feedback on its products. However, investigators found that doctors often performed little or no genuine consulting work despite receiving the payments.
Authorities alleged that Humad directed payments to surgeons in return for their use of SpineFrontier devices during operations, including procedures reimbursed through Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Health Administration.
US Attorney Leah B Foley said the case demonstrated the government’s determination to pursue healthcare fraud even when schemes involve sophisticated financial arrangements.
“The sentence is the culmination of years of dogged pursuit” of the company, its executives and physicians involved in the scheme, Foley said.
She added that criminal and civil proceedings had resulted in the recovery of more than USD 4 million from the executives, their companies and doctors who accepted the payments.
Federal authorities said the conduct compromised safeguards intended to protect patients and preserve the integrity of publicly funded healthcare programmes.
Roberto Coviello, special agent in charge at the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, said the alleged scheme attempted to improperly influence surgeons by providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments linked to the use of medical devices.
The case highlights the continuing scrutiny of financial relationships between medical-device companies and physicians, particularly when payments are connected to products used in procedures funded by government healthcare programmes.
