Lakewood Chiropractor to spend 20-years in jail for money laundering, tax evasion
The Lakewood Chiropractor who was sentenced to nearly five years in prison last week for tax evasion has 15-more years added on for money laundering.
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer has announced that Carlo Amato, 57, of Beachwood, was sentenced to fifteen years in New Jersey State Prison by the Honorable Michael T. Collins, J.S.C. after he previously pled guilty to First Degree Money Laundering.
Amato, the former owner of Chiropractic Care Consultants and Accident Recovery Physical Therapy in Lakewood, admitted to over-billing several insurance companies from January 2013 to December 2016 and that he used trust accounts set up in his minor children’s names to funnel the illegal proceeds to Russia.
During this period of time, Amato wired over $1.5 million dollars overseas.
For this offense Judge Collins sentenced Amato to ten years in New Jersey State Prison with a five year period of parole ineligibility.
While out on bail on the First Degree Money Laundering charge, Amato was re-arrested for defrauding the State of New Jersey and the Prudential Insurance Company out of approximately $116,000.00 in disability benefits.
This theft occurred between November 2013 and May 2015 when Amato, while still working at his Chiropractic office, applied for and received disability funds for injuries he alleged kept him from working.
After learning of this new offense, investigators executed a search warrant at Amato’s residence in Beachwood in December of 2017.
Detectives recovered approximately $182,000.00 in cash hidden in a wall as well as various forms of fraudulent identification.
On April 9, 2018, Amato pled guilty to a Second Degree charge of Theft by Deception for defrauding the State and the Prudential Insurance Company.
On May, 9, 2019, Judge Collins sentenced Amato to a consecutive five years in New Jersey State Prison.
“Amato’s pattern of criminal behavior occurred over a number of years, our Detectives, Assistant Prosecutors and Federal partners did an amazing job of putting all the pieces together in this case," Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said.
The primary investigation was headed by Special Agent Christine Parr of the FBI and Detective John LaRaia and Agent Katerina Huxel of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
In addition, the National Insurance Crime Bureau provided support during the initial stages of the investigation.
The State was represented by Senior Assistant Prosecutor Jill O’Malley and Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Heisler.
Amato's federal conviction for tax evasion is a shorter sentence than the state conviction for money laundering.
"His Federal sentence and his State sentence will run concurrently," Prosecutor Billhimer explained. "He will end up in prison longer on the State sentence than the Federal sentence."
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