Criminal Investigative Updates

Former VA employee Jesus Abreu of Brockton, Massachusetts, was charged with wire fraud for allegedly submitting fraudulent applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. These loans totaled more than $70,000. Abreu also allegedly submitted loan forgiveness applications that falsely claimed the PPP loans were spent on payroll. As a result of the misrepresentation, the loans were forgiven. The VA OIG and the US Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, investigated this case with assistance from the Norwood, Massachusetts, Police Department.

Denise Baez, of Brockton, Massachusetts, was charged with wire fraud. According to the charging documents, she allegedly made false claims on two applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans. To support these claims, she submitted fraudulent tax documents. Baez, who the VA has employed since August 2021, was approved for the loans and received $41,666, which she used on personal expenses. She submitted loan-forgiveness applications and falsely claimed she’d spent the funds on payroll, and the loan forgiveness was granted. The VA OIG and the Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration investigated this case.

Denise Baez, a former VA medical technician from Brockton, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. She submitted Paycheck Protection Program loan applications with false claims about gross income from a sole proprietorship and attached fraudulent tax documents. Baez received $41,666 that she used for personal expenses and later applied for loan forgiveness. The VA OIG and the Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, investigated the case.

Fugitive Gregory P. Heimann Jr., of Forest City, Maine, was arrested on charges related to making false statements to the VA. Allegedly, Heimann falsely represented to the VA in May 2023 that he had been wheelchair bound since 2004 and was unable to walk or stand. However, Heimann was documented and recorded walking and standing without the assistance of any mobility devices on numerous occasions. He disappeared in April 2024 shortly before a warrant was issued for his arrest. Initially, it was believed he may have drowned in a river near the Canadian border. However, further investigation revealed Heimann was not deceased and his disappearance was ruled suspicious. He evaded law enforcement for more than one year before being arrested by the US Marshals Service at a train station in La Plata, Missouri. The VA OIG, Social Security Administration OIG, and Maine Warden Service assisted in this investigation.

Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, the founder, president, and CEO of SpineFrontier, Inc., a Massachusetts-based medical device company, was sentenced to one year of supervised release with the first six months to be served in home confinement. Chin was also ordered to pay a fine of $9,500, in addition to $40,000 he agreed to pay as part of a related civil settlement, and $855,000 that his company, KICVentures, agreed to pay as part of the same settlement. In May 2025, Chin pleaded guilty to one count of false statements. Under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, device manufacturers are required to report any payments or transfers of value to physicians. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services maintains a database, via the Open Payments website, which makes all such payments or transfers of value publicly accessible. SpineFrontier offered surgeons the opportunity to engage in purported consulting on product development. Specifically, Chin directed his employees to report the payment of fees paid to a surgeon as consulting fees that were not compensation for actual consulting work. The VA OIG, Health and Human Services OIG, US Postal Inspection Service, and FBI investigated this case.

Aditya Humad of Cambridge, Massachusetts, chief financial officer of SpineFrontier, Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. Humad bribed surgeons to use SpineFrontier’s products, and in turn, the company received millions of dollars in revenue from surgeries performed by those surgeons. The VA OIG, the Department of Health and Human Services OIG, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the US Postal Inspection Service investigated this case.

Aditya Humad, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a $9,500 fine for conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. Humad, the chief financial officer of SpineFrontier, Inc., conspired to pay and direct the payment of over $540,000 in bribes to surgeons in the form of sham consulting fees for work they did not perform. He also conspired to bribe surgeons to use SpineFrontier’s products. and in turn, SpineFrontier received millions of dollars in revenue. The VA OIG, the Health and Human Services OIG, the FBI, and the US Postal Inspection Service Boston Division investigated this case.