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Title: Menendez donor, Fla. eye doctor guilty on all counts of Medicare fraud
Source:
nj.com
URL Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/20 ... ctor_guilty_on_all_counts.html
Published: Apr 28, 2017
Author: Associated Press
Post Date: 2017-04-28 17:17:56 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 184
Salomon Melgen speaks at his his office in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in 2013. A prominent Florida eye doctor has been convicted on all counts in his Medicare fraud trial, raising the possibility he could be pressured to testify in the bribery trial of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. Jurors announced their verdict Friday for Dr. Salomon Melgen. He effectively faces a life sentence if no deal is struck. Menendez denies any wrongdoing. Prosecutors contended that the 62-year-old Melgen stole up to $105 million from the federal insurance program between 2008 and 2013, by giving patients treatments and tests that couldn't help them. Melgen's attorneys argued that any billing issues were simply mistakes. Melgen and Menendez face a joint trial in the fall in New Jersey on charges the doctor bribed the senator to get help on a variety of issues. Steven Sandberg, a spokesman for the senior U.S. Senator for New Jersey, referred an NJ Advance Media reporters' inquiry to a statement released earlier in the day by Menendez's attorney, Abbe David Lowell. "I have spoken to Sen. Menendez and he is saddened for his long-time friend and is thinking of his family on this difficult day," wrote Lowell. "As we have known for the past two years, the issues involved in Dr. Melgen's case in south Florida had no bearing on the allegations made against the senator, and this verdict will have no impact on him. "Dr. Melgen's case focused solely on the day-to-day operations of his medical practice and the private care of his patients - specifics of which the Senator could not be aware, nor has it ever been suggested otherwise. "From the beginning, Senator Menendez has been clear that he has always acted in accordance with the law and in his appropriate legislative oversight role as a member of Congress. When all of the facts are heard, he is fully confident that a jury will agree and he will be vindicated." 
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