Zachary Ohebshalom, 34, Bergen County, New Jersey, admitted participating in a conspiracy to pay and accept kickbacks in exchange for medically unnecessary prescriptions. Beginning in May 2016, Ohebshalom participated in a kickback conspiracy stemming from a scheme to obtain millions of dollars in health benefits from the federal workers’ compensation program by prescribing and dispensing expensive, but medically unnecessary, pain creams. Dr. Filippone treated hundreds of now-former U.S. Postal Service employees for injuries they purportedly suffered on the job. He allegedly facilitated their disability claims by submitting forms and medical reports to the Department of Labor, Office of Workers’ Compensation Program, for patients who were not, in fact, disabled. Dr. Filippone also prescribed expensive topical pain creams, which were not needed or wanted by many of his patients.
The information alleges that Dr. Filippone steered these prescriptions to a pharmacy in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where Blaustein was the pharmacist-in-charge. The Fair Lawn Pharmacy was owned and operated by Joseph Vangelas and Marlene Vangelas, who, along with Ohebshalom, directed Blaustein and others to mine reimbursement rates within the federal workers’ compensation program for the ingredients of the pain creams in order to determine the most lucrative formulations. Joseph Vangelas, Marlene Vangelas, and Ohebshalom directed Blaustein and others to print prescription labels for Dr. Filippone to use with his patients. Dr. Filippone used the pre-printed labels and sent the prescriptions back to the Fair Lawn Pharmacy. In order to induce Dr. Filippone to prescribe the medically unnecessary pain creams in the exact formulations they wished to obtain, Joseph Vangelas and Marlene Vangelas purchased Dr. Filippone’s medical office and then permitted Dr. Filippone to continue to use the premises, for which he routinely failed to pay rent. Joseph Vangelas, Marlene Vangelas, and Ohebshalom conspired to leverage the property to force Dr. Filippone to continue to send prescriptions to their pharmacy. Dr. Filippone continued to feed prescriptions to the pharmacy, so long as Miller and Vangelas permitted him to remain rent-free in the property.
