NJ doctor pleads guilty to $1.3M health care fraud scheme

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A New Jersey doctor April 26 admitted his role participating in a health care scheme that defrauded Amtrak.

U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger announced the guilty plea by 50-year-old Muhammad Mirza, of Cedar Grove, who appeared via videoconference before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo. Mirza pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

According to prosecutors, Mirza and his conspirators engaged in a scheme, which ran from April 2017 through June 2022, to bill the Amtrak health care plan for fraudulent claims for services that were either never provided or were medically unnecessary.

The scheme included the recruitment of Amtrak employees to participate by paying them to allow the conspirators to use their patient and insurance information to submit false and fraudulent claims, which prosecutors say cost Amtrak more than $1.3 million in losses.

Mirza will be sentenced Sept. 13, 2023, when he faces a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest.

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