As owners of the marketing company Empire Pain Center Holdings, Eric Karlewicz and Nicco Romanowski created a step-by-step action plan that left no questions for the sales team. Karlewicz and Romanowski’s objective was clear – a scheme to use durable medical equipment (DME) companies, telemedicine companies, and doctors in order to submit millions of dollars in false claims to healthcare benefit programs based on a circular scheme of kickbacks and bribes.
Step one in the action plan: all Empire employees were incentivized with bonuses and commissions to maximize beneficiary participation. They targeted Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, coercing them into accepting DMEs such as braces for the back, shoulders, and knees, regardless of medical necessity. Empire then paid kickbacks to telemedicine companies, who in turn paid kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescriptions for the DME. As stipulated in prior agreements, the doctors signed the prescription orders regardless of medical necessity, often without ever speaking to the patient. Karlewicz and Romanowski would then distribute the fraudulent prescriptions to DME suppliers around the country. But the Empire’s action plan didn’t end there.
These DME suppliers would then submit claims for reimbursement to healthcare benefits to Medicare and Medicaid programs. Thereafter, the DME suppliers would send a portion of the fraudulently gained proceeds to Empire as payment for the doctor’s orders generated through the conspiracy. And then Karlewicz and Romanowski’s step-by-step fraud cycle would repeat. Empire received over $63 million in kickback payments as a result of this scheme. In total, Karlewicz and Romanowski caused the submission of over $127 million in false claims
On April 22, 2025, Karlewicz was sentenced to 51 months in prison and Romanowski was sentenced to 80 months in prison.
Excellent job by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “New Jersey Marketing Executives Sentenced in $127 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme” published by Morristown Minute on April 22, 2025.
Two operators of a New Jersey-based marketing company have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a large-scale health care fraud and kickback conspiracy that led to more than $127 million in false claims to federal health benefit programs, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced.
Eric Karlewicz, also known as “Anthony Mazza,” 46, of Rockland County, New York, was sentenced to 51 months in prison, and Nicco Romanowski, 33, of Roswell, Georgia, received an 80-month prison term. Both defendants previously pleaded guilty in Newark federal court to conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute and conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Their sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Judge Esther Salas.
