A Brooklyn cardiologist, Niranjan Mittal, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for his role in a long-running health care fraud and bribery scheme. The sentencing was announced by Jay Clayton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams handed down the sentence.
Mittal, who pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute, admitted to paying physicians for patient referrals and fabricating patient records to bill for unnecessary vascular procedures.
“At the core of our healthcare system is patient-doctor trust,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Mittal abused that trust, turning his offices into ‘patient mills’ and subjecting trusting patients to procedures they did not need. Today’s sentence sends a deterrent message to doctors and the healthcare industry: if you abuse patient trust for profit, you will face justice.”
Court documents show that since at least 2016, Mittal operated a medical clinic in Brooklyn serving many patients with limited economic means who were insured by government programs. To maintain a steady flow of new patients, Mittal made rental payments under supposed leases with other providers; however, these payments often did not align with actual lease terms and were used as inducements for referrals.
Staff members from Mittal’s clinic visited referring providers’ offices to perform basic tests on referred patients and persuaded them to attend follow-up appointments at the Brooklyn Clinic. Once there, patients underwent diagnostic tests and office visits that were generally unrelated to their actual treatment needs. These actions created documentation justifying unnecessary peripheral vascular interventional procedures—surgical interventions intended to clear blockages in leg blood vessels.
Mittal directed staff to fabricate descriptions of symptoms in office visit notes so that false symptoms would appear legitimate across different patients.
As a result of this scheme, many patients at Mittal’s clinic underwent repeated medically unnecessary vascular interventions over several years without improvement in their conditions. From 2016 through 2023, insurers paid more than $40 million to Mittal’s practice based on claims involving improperly referred patients.
In addition to prison time, Mittal received two years of supervised release and must forfeit proceeds connected with his offense.
Jay Clayton praised the investigative work done by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations division, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick R. Moroney, Matthew Weinberg, Ryan B. Finkel, and Brandon C. Thompson from the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.
