A neurosurgeon pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge for accepting approximately $3.3 million in bribes for performing spinal surgeries at a now-defunct Long Beach hospital whose owner later was imprisoned for committing a massive workers’ compensation system scam.

55 year old Lokesh Tantuwaya, who lives in San Diego, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and to violate the federal Anti-Kickback statute. He has been in federal custody since May 2021. He was initially free after he was ordered to hand over his passport, a million dollars and the jet.

Later it was ruled he was a flight risk and confined him to Santa Ana jail only after federal agents learned he’d purchased his own private plane and had discussed “fitting it with an extended fuel tank, just in case he needed to go far away,” according to a motion to revoke bond.

According to his plea agreement and statements at his change-of-plea hearing, from 2010 to 2013, Tantuwaya accepted money from Michael Drobot, who owned Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, in exchange for Tantuwaya performing spinal surgeries at that hospital. The bribe amount varied depending on the type of spinal surgery.

Pacific Hospital specialized in surgeries, especially spinal and orthopedic procedures. Drobot conspired with doctors, chiropractors and marketers to pay kickbacks and bribes in return for the referral of thousands of patients to Pacific Hospital for spinal surgeries and other medical services paid for primarily through the California workers’ compensation system. During its final five years, the scheme resulted in the submission of more than $500 million in medical bills for spine surgeries involving kickbacks.

Tantuwaya entered into contracts with Drobot and Drobot-owned companies. Tantuwaya admitted in his plea agreement that he knew or deliberately was ignorant that the payments were being given to him in exchange for bringing his patient surgeries to Pacific Hospital.  In furtherance of the scheme, Tantuwaya met with Drobot and Drobot’s employees. Tantuwaya further admitted to depositing bribe checks into his bank accounts.

Tantuwaya admitted that he knew the receipt of money in exchange for the referral of medical service was illegal and that he owed a fiduciary duty to his patients to not accept money in exchange for taking their surgeries to Pacific Hospital.

In total, Tantuwaya received approximately $3.3 million in illegal payments.

In April 2013, law enforcement searched Pacific Hospital, which was sold later that year, bringing the kickback scheme to an end. To date, 23 defendants have been convicted for participating in the kickback scheme.

Tantuwaya, was also named as a defendant in a civil federal lawsuit ( 8:13-cv-00956-AG-CW) filed by the State Compensation Insurance Fund involving a workers’ compensation fraud scheme at the Pacific Hospital of Long Beach.

The Los Angeles Times recently ran a feature story about how the California Medical Board protects negligent doctors. The Times cited at least ten California physicians, including Tantuwaya, as examples. The article pointed out that “license remains valid as he sits in jail awaiting trial.”

United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton scheduled a December 9 sentencing hearing, at which time Tantuwaya will face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, and the California Department of Insurance investigated this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph T. McNally and Billy Joe McLain of the Violent and Organized Crime Section are prosecuting this case.