New York cardiologist headed to prison—DOJ says he paid for referrals, performed unneeded procedures
Niranjan Mittal, a Brooklyn-based cardiologist, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for his participation in a years-long healthcare fraud and bribery scheme that involved paying other physicians for referrals and fabricating patient records. The 72-year-old was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and forced to forfeit all proceeds that can be traced to this scheme.
Mittal was arrested for his role in this scheme back in 2023. At the time, he was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, one count of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, and one count of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute. He would go on to plead guilty to the one count of violating the Anti-Kickback Statue in February 2025.
According to various court documents and statements made during court proceedings, Mittal operated a medical clinic that primary served patients who were insured by government healthcare programs. He would pay rental payments to other providers that were actually just payments for patient referrals. In addition, his staff members were encouraged to go to the offices of other providers, perform “basic tests” on patients and then convince those same patients that they needed follow-up care at Mittal’s own clinic. Those patients would then arrive with no idea why they were being referred for follow-up care—and the real reason was, Mittal wanted the required documentation to support treating those patients with vascular interventional procedures they did not need.
If necessary, Mittal would also dictate others to lie about the symptoms of these patients in their medical records, all so they would be seen as medically appropriate candidates for these unnecessary procedures.
“At the core of our healthcare system is patient-doctor trust,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) statement. “Mittal abused that trust, turning his offices into ‘patient mills’ and subjecting trusting patients to procedures they did not need. Today’s sentence sends a deterrent message to doctors and the healthcare industry: If you abuse patient trust for profit, you will face justice.”
According to the DOJ, this scheme resulted in some patients undergoing 10 or more interventional procedures they did not need. And from 2016 to 2023, insurance companies paid more than $40 million to Mittal’s practice for these false and fraudulent claims.
Michael has more than 19 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.