The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office has confirmed to reporters at news station KEYT that Dr. Richard Scheinberg, an orthopedic surgeon with offices in Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Santa Maria and Bakersfield, is “under investigation.”
However, officials would not say why.
A NewsChannel 3 crew visited Scheinberg’s office at 401 Chapala St., Ste. 102 near the end of June, and saw at least a handful of plainclothes detectives coming into and out of the building “all day long.” They were removing boxes of what appeared to be files. A posted sign directed patients to reschedule their appointments with Dr. Scheinberg.
The Scheinberg Orthopedic Group’s website states that he is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with more than 30 years of experience. He is currently on staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, the Pueblo Surgery Center and Carrillo Surgery Center. He also claims to have treated many professional athletes, including tennis players Jimmy Connors, Maria Sharapova, Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter.
Public court records shed some light on his medical business interests. He and his former wife, Celeste, had less than a friendly divorce. According to a Court of Appeal unpublished opinion, they separated in December 2009, and Celeste petitioned for dissolution. During the marriage, the parties lived on income from Richard’s three corporations: Richard D. Scheinberg, M.D., Inc., Pueblo Surgery Center, Inc., and Oxnard Industrial Physical Therapy, Inc. Celeste provided bookkeeping and billing services for these businesses.
In April 2010, they stipulated to a judgment which provided Celeste $8 million in cash as her portion of the community estate. And monthly spousal support of $12,500, child support of $10,000 monthly, and the opportunity to continue as Richard’s medical biller with income of at least $30,000 per month. It provided that if her billing income fell below $30,000 for two consecutive months, Celeste could request modification of spousal support.
When Celeste’s billing income fell below the agreed-upon level, Celeste moved the Court for modification of her spousal support and sought damages for breach of contract. Richard moved to terminate her employment contract, among other things. A mediation of these disputes in August 2012 resulted in a settlement agreement in which the parties terminated their employment relationship. Richard agreed to pay Celeste a lump sum spousal support payment of $1.6 million, in exchange for a waiver of further spousal support.
But that was not the end of their litigation. The parties went on to dispute the proceeds of an IRS refund check in the amount of $419,009.23, payable to Celeste. That dispute was resolved by the 2014 unpublished Court of Appeal opinion.
Scheinberg is a 1975 graduate of Duke University School of Medicine, and has been licensed as a physician and surgeon in California since 1980.
Anyone with relevant information about Dr. Scheinberg’s practice is asked to call John Savrnoch with the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office at (805) 568-2300.
Time will tell if the investigation will lead to a prosecution for some reason, or to nothing at all.