BOSTON - A Florida man was convicted in federal court of making a false declaration before a Grand Jury.
Mitchell Salzman, 45, of Boca Raton, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel to making a false declaration before grand jury or court. Salzman, a former regional sales director of a medical device company, lied about his involvement with a former company territory manager in Tennessee who had been fired for forging medical records in connection with Medicare orders. Immediately after the territory manager was fired, Salzman and others at the device company concocted a scheme where the company continued to pay the fired territory manager through a shell medical device distributorship.
Salzman was fully aware that the fired territory manager was involved with the distributorship and spoke with him several times about business with the device company. In July 2011, Salzman’s new supervisor asked questions concerning the arrangement between the device company and the distributorship in Tennessee. Salzman contacted the fired territory manager, and others, and told them that he would deny ever knowing that the fired territory manager was involved with the distributorship. Salzman testified before the grand jury pursuant to an immunity order. On August 24, 2011, Salzman testified that, until the last month, he had no idea that the fired territory manager was involved with the shell company, that he had only discovered the truth a few weeks before his testimony. He said that he had not had any contact with the territory manager since he was fired. In fact, Salzman was aware of the territory manager’s involvement with the shell company since 2009, and he had numerous conversations with the fired territory manager during the previous two years.
Judge Zobel scheduled sentencing for June12, 2012 at 2:00 pm. Salzman faces up to five years in prison to be followed by up to three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Susan J. Waddell, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations; and Leigh-Alistair, Resident Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Agency made the announcement today. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Schumacher and Jeremy Sternberg of Ortiz’s Health Care Fraud Unit.
