By Rowan Walrath – Life Sciences Reporter, Boston Business Journal / Sept. 7, 2021
The U.S. Department of Justice has arrested the CEO and the chief financial officer of a Malden medical device company on charges of conspiracy and violation of an anti-kickback law.
SpineFrontier Inc. CEO Kingsley Chin, 57, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and CFO Aditya Humad, 36, of Cambridge, were arrested Tuesday, following an Aug. 30 indictment. They were charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback law, six counts of anti-kickback violations and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The criminal charges follow a civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in March 2020. At the time, prosecutors accused the company, Chin, Humad and several others of incentivizing surgeons to use SpineFrontier products through kickback payments, allegedly leading to more than $100 million in product sales.
The charges are all in relation to the same alleged kickback scheme, through which SpineFrontier, Chin and Humad are accused of bribing surgeons to use SpineFrontier devices in exchange for “sham consulting fees” between $32,000 and $978,000, according to court documents.
