DENTIST FACES HEALTH CARE FRAUD AND TAX CHARGES

Buffalo, N.Y.--A federal grand jury in Buffalo returned a 65-count Superseding Indictment today charging Scott D. Geise, 46, of Newfane, New York, with theft from an Employee Benefit Plan, False Statements Relating To Health Care Matters and Filing False Income Tax Returns, announced U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn of the Western District of New York. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert C. Moscati stated that the Superseding Indictment charges the defendant with assisting another person with submitting a fraudulent claim for health care benefits to the Laborers Local 91 Welfare Fund; with having submitted 57 false claims to health insurance providers wherein he submitted claims for procedures which were not actually performed on patients; and with filing 4 false personal income tax returns from 2003 to 2006 and 3 false corporate income tax returns for Newfane Family Dentistry, P.C. from 2003 to 2005, as a result of under-reporting large quantities of cash which had been earned and received by his dental practice.

The Superseding Indictment was the result of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Gordon S. Heddell, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Laurie J. Bennett, the Internal Revenue Service, under the direction of Ann Marie Coons, the Niagara County Sheriff's Department, under the direction of Thomas Beilein, and the District=s Health Care Fraud Task Force. The evidence was presented to the Grand Jury by AUSA Robert Moscati, who will handle the trial of the case.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.