Kickbacks get Lakewood pharmacist prison time

The president and pharmacist-in-charge of Prescriptions R US in Lakewood is handed a 20-month prison term for slipping tens of thousands of dollars to doctors for prescription referrrals.

Vladimir Kleyman, 44, was sentenced in Camden for his previous guilty plea to counts of conspiracy to pay kickbacks and to commit health fraud, according to the office of acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman.

Kleyman is also required to serve three years of supervised release and pay $1,036,658 in criminal restitution, forfeiture and civil penalties, plus $2 million in federal income taxes, interest and penalties for the 2013 tax year.

In a civil settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, Kleyman paid $160,000 to resolve allegations of receiving Medicare funds through the scheme.

Investigators said that between January 2013 and January 2014, Kleyman paid $50,000 to a middleman, who passed payments to doctors, getting in return prescription referrals for a pain cream compounded in his pharmacy.

The medication's components included ketamine, lidocaine and diclofenac, authorities said.

Kleyman also admitted defrauding insurance carriers and federal health programs that don't cover the cost of the cream by lying on his payment submissions, pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars.