Crime & Safety

Madison School Medical Inspector Pleads Guilty in Lab Test Referral Scheme

Wayne Lajewski, 51, who has a practice on Main Street, admitted to accepting $48,000 in bribes.

A Madison doctor who has served as medical inspector for the borough school district pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting bribes in exchange for test referrals to a Parsippany lab, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Wayne Lajewski, 51, a longtime Madison resident, became the 26th defendant to plead guilty in the long-running scheme connected to Parsippany-based Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC.

Lajewski was appointed as the Madison School District medical inspector in February 2012. He replaced former Councilman Vincent Esposito, who admitted in December to writing illegal painkiller prescriptions.

Lajewski, who has an internal medicine practice on Main Street, was re-appointed as district medical inspector for $9,400 plus $150 for each home football game in a new contract from July 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2014.

According to his online bio, Lajewski is a former U.S. Army Ranger and served several tours in Iraq. He received an undergraduate degree from Rutgers in 1985, a Seton Hall law degree in 1989 and graduated University of Medicine and Dentistry in 1999.

According to court documents, Lajewski admitted accepting $2,000 in cash per month for a two-year period in exchange for referring patient blood specimens to BLS, which received more than $850,000.

Lajewski faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing on July 8. Lajewski agreed to forfeit $48,000—the amount he received in bribes—as part of the plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

A total of 26 people, including 15 doctors, have pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.

The organizers have admitted the scheme involved millions of dollars in bribes and yielded more than $100 million in payments to BLS from Medicare and other private insurance companies, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The investigation has recovered more than $7 million so far in forfeitures, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.


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