A former New Jersey health care facility director has pleaded guilty in a kickbacks-for-patients scheme.

Tomas Bercic, Getty Images
Tomas Bercic, Getty Images
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Chirag Patel led Orange Community MRI, a diagnostic testing center. During an appearance Tuesday in federal court in Newark, the 37-year-old Warren resident admitted that he paid bribes to doctors between 2008 and 2011.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Patel and more than a dozen other health care providers were involved in the scheme. Thirteen doctors and one nurse practitioner were charged with accepting cash kickbacks in return for referring patients to Patel.

Patel is the ninth person charged in December 2011 to plead guilty. He pleaded to one count of soliciting and receiving illegal cash kickbacks and faces a maximum five-year prison term when he's sentenced in February. He will also forfeit $89,000.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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