Feds ask judge to impose $6.5 million punishment for Cape surgeon

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to order Cape Girardeau neurosurgeon Sonjay Fonn and fiancee Deborah Seeger to pay $6.53 million in penalties and “treble damages” after being convicted of submitting false and fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims.

Deborah Seeger

Prosecutors filed the 14-page motion late last week in federal court. Citing federal law, prosecutors seek triple the amount of damages imposed by a federal jury.

A jury Nov. 9 in St. Louis handed down guilty verdicts against Fonn and his medical practice, Midwest Neurosurgeons LLC, and Seeger and her company, DS Medical LLC, following an 11-day civil trial.

Seeger started DS Medical, a spinal-implant distributorship in 2008. Fonn then used spinal implants from DS Medical for most of the spinal-implant surgeries he performed from 2008 to 2012, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said in a news release last month Seeger typically received 50-percent commissions on implants Fonn used during surgeries, “meaning Dr. Fonn’s treatment choices directly impacted” his fiancee’s distributorship income.

Trial evidence showed that after Seeger received commissions, Seeger spent some of that income to benefit Fonn through home improvements, purchase of a yacht and other “purchases and expenditures,” the release stated.

Federal prosecutors alleged the defendants and their corporations violated the anti-kickback statute, a federal law that bars health-care providers from making patient referrals in exchange for any direct or indirect benefits.

The jury found Fonn and Seeger conspired to violate the federal False Claims Act.

Prosecutors said in their motion the judge statutorily is required to impose three times the amount of damages for such violations.

In addition, prosecutors said they are seeking the “minimum amount of per-claim penalties or $5,500 for each of the 223 claims,” or a total of $1.22 million. That amount plus treble damages adds up to a total judgment of $6.53 million, according to the motion.

Prosecutors said in their motion the defendants “knowingly and willfully solicited and received kickbacks” through DS Medical from six spinal-implant manufacturers.

The federal suit began as a civil case brought by a handful of Cape Girardeau doctors and two others in 2012.

Cape Girardeau physicians Terry Cleaver, Kyle Colle, Scott Gibbs (now deceased), Paul Tolentino and Kevin Vaught, surgical assistant Daniel Henson and Cape Girardeau resident Paul Cairns filed a civil suit in federal court five years ago against Fonn and Seeger and their medical companies regarding kickback allegations.

In a 2012 court filing, it was alleged Fonn and Seeger had an “exclusive arrangement” that resulted in large profits for the defendants.

“Fonn has bragged that his earnings and Seeger’s earnings exceed $8 million per year,” according to the court document.

In 2014, the government intervened in the civil suit, essentially taking over prosecution of the civil case.

Fonn’s attorney, James Martin, argued in a court filing in September 2014 that “nothing in the complaint suggests it is against the law for a doctor to send business to a vendor because of love and compassion, out of friendship or to assist one’s life partner in their business development.”

That same year, a federal grand jury handed down a four-count criminal indictment accusing Fonn and Seeger of one count of conspiracy to solicit and receive illegal kickbacks and three felony counts of anti-kickback violations.

The indictment accused Fonn of altering his medical practice to include more surgeries than usual and to use more spinal implants in those surgeries during the time DS Medical was operating.

In December 2015, U.S. Magistrate Judge Abbie Crites-Leoni dismissed the criminal case against Fonn and Seeger at the request of prosecutors.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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