FOR the second time this month, United States law enforcement officials have reported that a Jamaican doctor operating in America has found himself on the wrong side of the law.

In the latest case, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that last Friday Dr Christopher Walker, a licensed urogynaecologist, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to participating in a scheme involving the payment of bribes and kickbacks to obtain referrals of female patients across the United States for surgeries to remove transvaginal mesh (TVM) implants.

Walker reportedly grew up in Jamaica and earned his medical degree at The University of the West Indies. After practising family medicine in Jamaica he relocated to the United States where he completed additional medical training in obstetrics and gynaecology.

According to the FBI, Wesley Blake Barber, an owner of Surgical Assistance Inc, pleaded guilty on September 14 to participating in the same scheme. Both proceedings took place before United States District Judge Raymond J Dearie.

“With these guilty pleas, both defendants have admitted to participating in a reprehensible bribery and kickback scheme to exploit women across the country in connection with costly transvaginal mesh removal surgeries,” the FBI reported Jacquelyn M Kasulis, acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as saying.

“This office, the Department of Justice, and the FBI are committed to investigating and prosecuting medical professionals and others who take advantage of vulnerable victims for their own illegal gain and personal profit,” the FBI said.

According to court filings and facts presented at the plea proceeding, Barber and Walker sought to profit in connection with lawsuits filed throughout the United States relating to alleged harm that TVM implants had caused female patients.

The scheme sought to take advantage of the fact that female patients who had their TVM implants surgically removed were entitled to receive larger settlements than female patients whose inserts remained implanted.

As part of the scheme, Walker and others paid kickbacks and bribes to Barber in exchange for the referral of female patients for these surgeries, including patients who travelled across the United States to undergo the surgeries.

When sentenced, Walker faces up to 10 years in prison and has agreed to forfeit approximately US$800,000.

Barber faces up to five years in prison and has agreed to forfeit approximately US$1.1 million.

Earlier this month, Dr Kingsley Chin, a 57-year-old Jamaican from Portland who is now the chief executive officer and owner of SpineFrontier, a device company based in Malden, Massachusetts; and the company’s chief financial officer, Aditya Humad, were each indicted on one count of conspiring to violate federal anti-kickback law.

The indictment alleges that SpineFrontier, Chin, and Humad paid surgeons between US$250 and US$1,000 per hour in sham consulting fees for work they did not perform.

In exchange, the surgeons allegedly agreed to use SpineFrontier’s products in operations paid for by federal health care programmes such as Medicare and Medicaid.

The charge of conspiring to violate the anti-kickback statute carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of US$250,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offence (whichever is greater), forfeiture and restitution.