[Jay Spina at a Drug-Free World event in 2016]

On Thursday, Geoffrey S. Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, unsealed an indictment of two Orange County, New York chiropractors and two additional people who work in their office, accusing them of defrauding Medicare of more than $80 million.

The two chiropractors, James “Jay” Spina, 59, and his brother Jeffrey Spina, 56, are longtime Scientologists who have been big supporters of the Scientology front group Foundation for a Drug-Free World, which we’ve told you for years spends its time infiltrating New York City schools with the help of the NYPD.

The Spina brothers have worked as chiropractors in Middletown, New York for many years. They called their clinic Spina Chiropractic — which was listed as a World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) business in 1999 — then Dolson Avenue Medical until it was raided last year by the FBI and changed its name to Pain Relief and Wellness Center.

WISE is a Scientology front organization that targets chiropractors, dentists, and veterinarians with L. Ron Hubbard’s business administration ideas as a way to bring them into the church itself.

According to Scientology’s own publications, Jay Spina went “Clear” in 1990, did the expensive L10-L12 Rundowns at the Flag Land Base in 1990-91, finished OT 7 in 2003, and completed the “Havingness Rundown” just last year. His brother Jeffrey went Clear in 1990, did the L’s in 1990-91, OT 3 in 1994, and the Purification Rundown (again) last year.


In a photo on their clinic’s website, the Spina brothers posed with a plaque and talked about their company’s involvement in Scientology’s Drug-Free World front…





[Jay, left, and Jeffrey Spina]

Dolson Avenue Medical has partnered with drugfreeworld.org to educate people on the myths and facts of drugs and drug abuse, so people are better informed to make the right decisions about their future. Educational booklets are distributed to about 3000 teachers and students every year at the Y2Kids Career day, with a total of 25,000 booklets handed out in the past 5 years.

Until recently, the Drug-Free World New York Chapter listed Dr. Jay Spina as its Orange County Director.

That organization, which has renamed itself the Americas Chapter of Drug-Free World, is run by Queens dentist Bernard Fialkoff and his daughter Meghan. They won Scientology’s highest honor, the Freedom Medal, at the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) gala in 2016…







Speaking of the IAS, in 2010 Jay Spina was listed as a “Patron With Honors” donor for having given a total of at least $100,000. He was also listed as a $35,000 donor to Scientology’s “Super Power” Building project.

In other words, the Spina brothers are about as involved in Scientology as you can get, and have been for many, many years.

They’ve each been charged with one count of conspiring to commit health care fraud and one count of health care fraud, which each carry maximum sentences of 10 years in prison. Two people who work in their office — bookkeeper Andrea Grossman, 59, and Jeffrey and Jay’s sister Kim Spina, 54 — have also been charged with those counts. The Spina brothers have also been charged with a count of obstructing a federal audit, carrying a maximum penalty of five years.

A physician associated with their clinic, Charles Bagley, 69, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and is facing 10 years in prison.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, the Spinas conspired to overcharge Medicare through the use of their clinic, Dolson Avenue Medical (DAM), and several other “Associated Businesses” that they controlled.

[The Spina brothers] went to great lengths to conceal their control and ownership of DAM and the Associated Businesses. In particular, JAMES SPINA and JEFFREY SPINA recruited medical doctors and other professionals to serve as the nominee owners of DAM and the Associated Businesses. JAMES SPINA and JEFFREY SPINA further concealed their ownership of DAM and the Associated Businesses by transferring revenues of these companies into other companies they owned. To further disguise these transfers, JAMES SPINA and JEFFREY SPINA drafted fake lease and marketing agreements between DAM and the Associated Businesses and purported real estate and marketing companies they owned and referred to the payments as “rent” or “marketing fees.” The defendants also used phony and non-existent addresses for the corporations so that it would appear that DAM and the Associated Businesses were operating out of separate locations.

Investigating the alleged scam drew on the resources of several different federal and state agencies. “An alleged theft of this magnitude is appalling when so many hard-working people experience rising health care costs. Now, their alleged scams have been exposed, thanks to my partnership with U.S. Attorney Berman, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office,” said New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

But the Spina brothers are not folding their tent. Their attorneys told the Times Herald-Record in Middletown that they would keep their clinic open and continue working, even as they face trial for fraud.

“Dr. Jay Spina pled not guilty, and we’re going to continue to fight these charges,” the newspaper was told by White Plains attorney Michael Burke. Goshen attorney James Monroe, who represents Jeffrey Spina, said that his client “remains committed to practicing chiropractic and taking good care of his patients.”

Hey, that’s the Hubbard spirit.



Here’s the indictment itself…

James and Jeffrey Spina Indictment by Tony Ortega on Scribd



——————–

MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…







Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.



——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 2, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news