By William Armstead
BOSTON – James Rausch was sentenced in federal court on Feb. 13, 2026, in Boston for plotting to pay physicians to prescribe medically unnecessary brain scans. Rausch is a past sales director for the Northeast region of a mobile medical diagnostics company.
U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton made the decision on the eight-month sentencing. Rausch, 57, of Point Jefferson Station, N.Y., will also have one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $17,573,642 in restitution, give up the amount of $408,437, and pay a $20,000 fine. In June 2025, Rausch pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute.
For five years and possibly longer, Rausch and others, including two managers at a mobile diagnostic company, paid doctors illegal kickbacks in exchange for ordering TCD brain scans. TCD scans are used to measure blood flow in the brain. Rausch and his co-conspirators paid doctors with cash and checks for the number of TCD ultrasounds ordered. The group made agreements to disguise kickbacks as real payments for office space and administrative services, falsely claiming the payments were based on fair market value rather than patient referrals. These were sham agreements that hid the true nature of the arrangement of paying per test.
The scheme resulted in fraudulent bills adding up to about $70.6 million to Medicare. Medicare paid approximately $27.2 million to the TCD company for the fraudulent claims.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Roberto Coviello, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Thomas Demeo, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; Anthony D’Esposito, Inspector General of the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; Nicholas Bucciarelli, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division; and Christopher Algieri, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, Northeast Field Office made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mackenzie Queenin, Chief of the Health Care Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.