DOJ Declines to Prosecute Eye Care Management Company Under New Corporate Enforcement Policy; Founder Indicted for Fraud and Kickbacks

DOJ Declines to Prosecute Eye Care Management Company Under New Corporate Enforcement Policy; Founder Indicted for Fraud and Kickbacks

The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Fraud Enforcement Division announced a two-part resolution involving Campus Eye Management Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, Campus Eye Management LLC (collectively, Campus Eye), a New Jersey-based management services organization providing billing and other management services to an optometry practice and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) founded by E. Bruce DiDonato. DiDonato and outside private equity investors formed Campus Eye in 2021. The government declined to bring criminal charges against Campus Eye for health care fraud, illegal kickbacks, bribery, and conspiracy after the company voluntarily disclosed misconduct, fully cooperated with the ensuing investigation, and took steps to remediate the underlying conduct, including agreeing to pay $1 million in restitution to victims. This declination marks the first time the DOJ has resolved a health care fraud matter under its department-wide Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy, which we covered here.

In a separate action, a federal grand jury charged DiDonato with health care fraud conspiracy, Anti-Kickback Statute conspiracy, substantive health care fraud, and three counts of paying illegal kickbacks. The government alleges that from at least 2015 through March 2023, DiDonato orchestrated a scheme to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary diagnostic eye tests and paid bribes disguised as consulting fees to ophthalmologists in exchange for surgical patient referrals to the ASC. Neither DiDonato nor the ordering optometrist allegedly reviewed the test results, and the referring ophthalmologists purportedly did not rely on them in making treatment decisions. The fraudulent claims allegedly totaled approximately $3.4 million, of which Medicare paid roughly $1 million. DiDonato faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the health care fraud and substantive kickback charges, and up to five years on the kickback conspiracy count.

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Dallas Laboratory, Owners, and Investors Pay $24 Million to Resolve COVID-19 Testing Fraud Allegations

The DOJ announced that Magnolia Diagnostics and its co-owners, John and Kelly Bains, along with the laboratory’s investors, agreed to pay a combined $24 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) in connection with alleged fraudulent Medicare billing. The government contends that Magnolia, which conducted respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) testing at senior living facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, submitted false claims to Medicare for thousands of RPP tests that were not medically necessary, were not individually ordered by patients’ treating providers, and were not timely reported or processed. The government also alleged that Magnolia offered COVID-19 testing to senior communities only as part of its more expensive respiratory panels, denying seniors the option of standalone COVID-19 testing to increase profits. Co-owner John Bains also reportedly threatened to withhold COVID-19 testing from facilities that questioned the necessity of the panels, altered provider-signed requisition forms to expand their scope, and froze thousands of specimens for weeks or months before testing, rendering the results clinically worthless. 

The two related settlement agreements provide that the Bainses and the laboratory will pay $19.2 million, while Magnolia’s investors have agreed to pay $4.8 million stemming from distributions they received from the lab.

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

Medical Supply Company Owner Convicted of $30 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

A federal jury in Orlando, Florida, convicted Mark Loftis, a 39-year-old Oklahoma chiropractor, of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud following a roughly two-week trial. Loftis owned and operated Back Pain Home Supplies LLC, doing business as EZ Medical Supply, and used the company to submit more than $30 million in fraudulent claims to federal health care programs for orthotic braces and other durable medical equipment (DME). According to the government, from approximately September 2017 to October 2020, Loftis paid more than $1 million in illegal kickbacks to marketers and call centers to obtain personal and health insurance information from elderly and disabled individuals, including those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Loftis and his co-conspirators then used that information to procure signed orders from telemedicine providers who never examined or spoke to the patients. The government alleged that the resulting claims were for medically unnecessary DME that was not provided as represented, and that federal health care programs paid approximately $8 million on the fraudulent claims. Loftis is tentatively scheduled for sentencing in October.

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

The case is United States v. Loftis, No. 6:25-cr-00350 (M.D. Fla.).

FBI Most Wanted Fraudster Extradited From Jamaica in $32 Million Pandemic Relief Fraud

Forty-one-year-old Elaine Escoe, a fugitive on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Most Wanted Fraudsters List, was extradited from Jamaica to face charges in the Southern District of Florida stemming from her scheme that fraudulently obtained more than $32 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds. In May 2025, Escoe failed to appear for her court date after being charged by indictment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple substantive counts of wire fraud and money laundering. She fled to Jamaica and lived under a fake identity until she was apprehended by Jamaican authorities acting on FBI intelligence. 

The government alleges that Escoe and several co-conspirators devised a scheme to file fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans, Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants, Shuttered Venue Operators Grants, and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. The filings purportedly fabricated the existence, payroll figures, revenue, and day-to-day operations of sham businesses to maximize pandemic relief disbursements. To bolster the applications, the conspirators allegedly manufactured fictitious tax returns and bank statements. In some instances, they reportedly filed applications on behalf of outside parties in exchange for kickbacks amounting to half of the loan proceeds. Escoe is the final defendant to face prosecution in the case. Five co-defendants have already been convicted and received prison terms ranging from roughly three-and-a-half to nearly 20 years.

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

The case is United States v. Escoe, No. 25-cr-80076 (S.D. Fla.). 

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.