Ambulance-chasing chiropractors?

A Trenton, New Jersey newspaper reports that two brothers admitted to paying people to recruit car accident victims as patients for their own chiropractic offices, as well as for other offices and personal injury lawyers in return for kickbacks.

Anhuar Bandy, 52, and Karim Bandy, 53, were indicted with 10 others in April, 2014 for illegally controlling several chiropractic offices through management and marketing companies to hide their ownership, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

To generate revenue, the brothers paid “runners” $1,000 for each patient they could bring in for treatment. Authorities said runners obtained police reports under the state public records law and visited patients’ homes to urge them to get care.

From 2009 through 2013, the offices billed insurance carriers for millions of dollars in services they purported to provide patients, authorities said.

The Bandys pleaded guilty to insurance fraud before state Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez in Mercer County. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors will recommend they be sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.

The charges against the 10 others indicted in the scheme are pending.