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Texas doctor convicted after accepting more than $200,000 in kickbacks for patients’ blood, urine samples
A Texas internal medicine doctor was convicted of accepting more than $200,000 in kickbacks for sending patient samples to particular labs, according to officials from the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
Dr. Hector Ubaldo, 60, was indicted in September. After a two-day trial, it took a federal grand jury only 14 minutes to find him guilty of conspiracy to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks and solicitation and receipt of illegal kickbacks.
Based on the evidence presented at trial, Ubaldo accepted cash from so-called “marketers” in return for sending patients’ blood and urine samples to particular labs, which then billed insurance companies and Medicare for running diagnostic tests, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ubaldo also entered into “sham medical advisory agreements with the labs and marketers” where he was supposed to provide advisory services in exchange for a monthly fee. However, the labs and marketers did not need these services, and Ubaldo did not provide them.
“Instead, the medical advisory service agreements served as a fraudulent vehicle to funnel kickback payments to Dr. Ubaldo in exchange for his sending samples to specific labs,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
On various occasions, one of the marketers met with Ubaldo at his office and handed over thousands of dollars in cash. Video evidence of the meetings was introduced in court.
“To tell you the truth, I need the cash,” Dr. Ubaldo told the marketer at one of the meetings.
Ubaldo accepted more than $253,000 in bribes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He now faces up to 15 years in federal prison and was taken into custody as he awaits sentencing.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
