Chiropractor Pleads Guilty In Fraud

TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a Hudson County chiropractor has pleaded guilty for submitting numerous fraudulent claims to an insurance company for chiropractic treatments and office visits that were never performed.

Charles Boas, 66, of Matawan, pleaded guilty yesterday (April 21) to third-degree insurance fraud before Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez in Hudson County.  Boas was charged on Sept. 12, 2012 with stealing approximately $13,000 as a result of the fraud, and has subsequently paid restitution to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Judge Galis-Menendez scheduled sentencing for June.  Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Boas be sentenced to three years of probation.  The plea agreement also calls for a minimum one-year suspension of Boas’s chiropractic license.  Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi noted that New Jersey law provides that there is a presumption against any sentence of incarceration for a person convicted of a third-degree crime who has not previously been convicted of an indictable offense.

In pleading guilty Boas, who was self-employed as a chiropractor in Bayonne, admitted that between Oct. 9, 2006 and Aug. 13, 2009, he submitted fraudulent claims to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield for chiropractic services that he did not perform.  An investigation by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor determined that Boas made false statements and submitted false claims to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield that certain treatments and services were provided to patients when, in fact, the treatments and services were not provided.

Deputy Attorney General James A. Carey, Jr., Detectives Matthew Armstrong and Christine Sullivan and Civil Investigators Craig Leshner and Robert Rosiello were assigned to the case.  Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Chillemi thanked Timothy Dineen of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Special Investigative Unit.  Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Chillemi also thanked Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield for referring the matter to the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.

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