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 pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute. According to court documents and statements made during proceedings, Mittal paid physicians for patient referrals and fabricated patient records to bill for medically 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.”
Since at least 2016, Mittal operated a medical clinic in Brooklyn with many patients insured by government health care programs. He paid other providers through purported leases for office space; however, these payments often did not correspond to actual lease terms but were instead used to induce referrals. Staff members from Mittal’s clinic visited referring providers’ offices, performed basic tests on referred patients, and encouraged them to attend follow-up appointments at Mittal’s clinic.
Patients who arrived at the clinic underwent diagnostic tests and follow-up visits that were generally unrelated to their treatment needs. These actions created documentation justifying unnecessary peripheral vascular interventional procedures—surgeries intended to clear blockages in leg blood vessels. Mittal directed staff to fabricate symptoms in office visit notes so that falsified information would not be obvious across multiple patients.
Many patients underwent repeated unnecessary interventions without improvement in their conditions. Between 2016 and 2023, insurers paid over $40 million to Mittal’s practice for claims involving patients referred by doctors who received improper rent payments.
In addition to his prison term, Mittal was sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit proceeds traceable to his offense.
Jay Clayton commended the investigative work of several agencies involved: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations.
The case was prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick R. Moroney, Matthew Weinberg, Ryan B. Finkel, and Brandon C. Thompson leading the prosecution.
