Multimillion-dollar worldwide hacking scheme revealed

New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, shown here at a press conference last year, announced today that an Englewood doctor has been arrested for billing insurance carriers for office visits with patients that never occurred. |Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

NEWARK — A New Jersey doctor was arrested today for billing insurance companies hundreds of thousands of dollars for office visits with patients that never occurred, federal prosecutors say.

Albert Ades, 60, of Englewood, is accused in a 36-count indictment unsealed today with health care fraud and making false statements relating to health care matters, prosecutors say.

Ades is a family practictioner with offices in Cresskill and Little Falls.

For nearly a decade between 2005 and 2014, prosecutors say, he billed Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for face-to-face visits with patients without ever seeing them, prosecutors claim.

On the dates of the bogus visits, Ades wrote prescriptions or authorized refills, they say. And medical records were altered to make it appear that the patients had been to one of his offices, the added.

After an insurance carrier started an audit based on a patient's complaint, Ades "shredded original medical records," prosecutors say.

During the years between 2008 and 2013, at least four of Ades' employees told him that his billing scheme was illegal, prosecutors say.

During an October 2013 conversation that was recorded, Ades defended himself when one former employee told him that it was not permissible to bill insurers for office visits that never took place, according to the indictment.

"I wrote something," Ades said, according to the indictment. "The fact that I wrote something, documented something -- somebody's paying me for that."

Ades is facing up to 10 years in prison on the health care fraud charge and five years for each count of making false statements.

The investigation was led by the FBI along with the Inspector General's office for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Thomas Zambito may be reached at tzambito@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomZambito. Find NJ.com on Facebook.