Man pleads guilty in DNA-testing kickback scheme

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A fourth defendant pleaded guilty Monday in a fraud scheme involving kickbacks for genetic testing.

The U.S. attorney's office in Newark, New Jersey said Jeremy Richey pleaded guilty by videoconference to one count of conspiracy to violate anti-kickback statutes.

The 40-year-old Mars, Pennsylvania resident was one of six people indicted in 2019. The indictment charged them with accepting nearly $2 million in bribes over a one-year period from labs where the group referred samples for testing.

According to the U.S. attorney's office, the group's company, Ark Laboratory Network, concealed the kickbacks by issuing bogus invoices to the labs, based on how much the labs received in payments for each sample. Medicare reimbursed the labs about $4.6 million for tests connected to the referrals.

Richey faces a maximum five-year prison term when he's sentenced in August.

Co-defendants Kacey C. Plaisance of Altamonte Springs, Florida; Kyle McLean of Arlington Heights, Illinois and Edward Kostishion of Lakeland, Florida previously pleaded guilty. Plaisance is scheduled to be sentenced in June, and McLean and Kostishion are scheduled for sentencing in July.