BOSTON — The CEO of a Massachusetts-based company has been sentenced for making false statements to the federal government, the U.S. Attorney said Thursday.
Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, 61, founder, president and CEO of SpineFrontier Inc., a medical device company headquartered in Malden, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to one year of supervised release with the first six months to be served in home confinement, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani handed down his sentence.
Chin was also ordered to pay a fine of $9,500, in addition to $40,000 he personally agreed to pay as part of a related civil settlement, Foley said, and $855,000 his wholly-owned company, KICVentures, agreed to pay as part of the same settlement.
Chin pleaded guilty in May to one count of making false statements to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Open Payments Program.
The Physician Payment Sunshine Act requires device manufacturers like SpineFrontier to report any payments or transfers of value to physicians, including spine surgeons, Foley said.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services maintains a database, via the Open Payments website, which makes all such payments or transfers of value publicly accessible.
According to the charging documents, SpineFrontier offered surgeons the opportunity to engage in purported consulting on product development.
Specifically, Chin directed his employees to report the payment of fees paid to a surgeon as consulting fees that were not compensation for actual consulting work.
Chin caused his employees to report a payment of $4,750 on Jan. 19, 2016, to the surgeon as a “consulting” payment, even though Chin knew that the surgeon had not performed actual consulting work for the payment, prosecutors said.
Chin “also knew that he and SpineFrontier were required to accurately report any payments or transfers of value to the surgeon,” prosecutors said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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