San Jose dentist faces insurance fraud charges

June 04--SAN JOSE -- A San Jose dentist who served on the Santa Clara County Dental Society's Ethics Committee is facing insurance fraud charges, prosecutors said Friday.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's office confirmed that it expects to charge veteran San Jose dentist John Roger Lund, D.D.S. with 28 counts of insurance fraud on Monday morning.

The office declined to release any details about the case until after Lund's arraignment.

Reached late Friday afternoon, Lund, 66, said that he is "innocent of all charges."

Records show Lund, a Saratoga resident, received his California dental license in 1976.

He said he has been retired for four years and confirmed his last office location was on Prospect Road in San Jose.

The Dental Board of California said that Lund has no previous disciplinary action, but there have been complaints filed against him.

Scott Vice, an enforcement analyst at the board, could not discuss the nature of the complaints.

Vice said the board investigates complaints, and depending on the nature of the violation can issue a citation and can also file criminal charges. He could not confirm if the dental board was the agency that filed the criminal charges against Lund.

Vice said the case also has been referred to the Attorney General's office for an administrative investigation.He said insurance fraud could range from performing unnecessary dental work on patients to falsifying insurance forms.

Lund had run into legal problems in October 2013, when dentist Brendon J. Zeidler sued Lund after purchasing Lund's San Jose dental practice from him the year before. Zeidler accused Lund of breach of a written contract, intentional misrepresentation, and concealment. In 2014, Lund filed for summary judgment, which was denied.

In court documents, Zeidler alleged that Lund misrepresented that the dental practice had 728 active patients and that it generated $729,000 to $988,999 per year for the prior four years based on actual patient treatment performed in a legal and appropriate manner and legitimate and legal insurance billing practices.

The lawsuit said Zeidler alleges that Lund had collected those revenues but that they were generated "as a result of fraudulent billing activity, billing for treatment that was unnecessary and billing for treatment which was never performed."

Lund's attorney, Tom Nolan, of Palo Alto, did not return a reporter's call on Friday.

Contact Tracy Seipel at 408-920-5343. Follow her at Twitter.com/taseipel.

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