Former CEO of Rock Creek Psychiatric Facility and Affiliated Physician Convicted in $565,000 Bribery and Kickback Conspiracy

CHICAGO—The former chief executive officer of the shuttered Rock Creek Center in southwest suburban Lemont and an internal medicine physician who was affiliated with the privately owned psychiatric facility that closed in 2002 were convicted today by a Federal Court jury of participating in a bribery and kickback conspiracy. The defendants, Wendy Mamoon, 50, of Milwaukee, the former CEO, and Dr. Roland Borrasi, 56, of Burr Ridge, were each found guilty on all counts on the second day of deliberations, following a three-week trial in U.S. District Court, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mamoon and Borassi were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to offer and receive bribes and kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals and six counts of offering or receiving bribes to secure those patient referrals. U.S. District Judge William Hibbler set sentencing for Oct. 6.

Mamoon, Borassi and Mahmood Baig, Rock Creek’s former director of operations, were indicted in January 2007. Baig, 58, of Bolingbrook, pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy and testified at the trial of his co-defendants. The jury convicted Mamoon and Borrasi of participating in a conspiracy in which Rock Creek and Mamoon made illegal payments totaling more than $565,000 to Borrasi and his medical doctors group, Integrated Health Center, S.C., located in Romeoville. Mamoon, Baig and other Rock Creek officials directed bribe payments to Borrasi and four individual physicians employed by him at Integrated in return for Borrasi referring patients to Rock Creek, enabling the facility to obtain Medicare payments for those patients.

“Medicare insurance exists to provide health care services to patients in need. Inflating claims for reimbursement for unnecessary services diverts Medicare coverage from providers with legitimate claims,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “When doctors accept bribes for making medical decisions, such as patient referrals, they put their own self-interest above their patients’ and such abuses of the system will not be tolerated.”

Evidence at the trial showed that Mamoon and Baig were responsible for making decisions regarding patient admissions and discharges and ensuring a high patient census at Rock Creek, which had approximately 120 patient beds. Mamoon, Baig and Borassi participated in the bribery and kickback conspiracy along with others. Between 2000 and September 2002, Mamoon, Baig, Borrasi and others agreed that Rock Creek would pay bribes to Borrasi, to Integrated, and to four physicians who worked for Integrated, in return for Borrasi’s referral of patients to Rock Creek.

According to the evidence, Mamoon, Baig and others caused Rock Creek to pay Borrasi a total of approximately $222,000 over three years—$53,000 in 2000, $116,000 in 2001, and $53,000 in 2002—in bribes disguised as compensation for Borrasi’s purported employment at Rock Creek. In addition, Mamoon, Baig and others caused Rock Creek to pay a total of more than $280,000 to four Integrated physicians between 2000 and 2002, purportedly as compensation for work they performed at Rock Creek, when, in fact, the payments were disguised bribes in return for Borassi’s patient referrals. Finally, beginning in early 2001, Mamoon, Baig and others also caused Rock Creek to pay $1,850 a month for Integrated’s office lease and $2,000 a month in salary for Integrated’s secretary, knowing that these payments were not legitimate Rock Creek business expenses but were bribes to benefit Borrasi and Integrated in return for patient referrals.

As part of the conspiracy, Borrasi referred substantially more patients to Rock Creek after the agreement with Mamoon, Baig and others than before the conspiracy began. Mamoon and Baig caused Rock Creek to submit reimbursement claims to Medicare for the hospital stays of those patients, which, in fact, they knew were not medically necessary. As part of the conspiracy, Borrasi caused Integrated to pay kickbacks to Baig totaling $66,000—$30,000 in 2001, and $36,000 in 2002—to coordinate the admission of Borrasi’s referrals to Rock Creek and to ensure that Integrated’s physicians could maximize the Medicare reimbursement they received for medical services purportedly provided to those patients.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa Noller and Joel Hammerman. The investigation was conducted by the Chicago offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

Mamoon and Borrasi each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the seven counts of which they were convicted. The Court, however, will determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

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