PROVIDENCE – A Providence-based chiropractor pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to diverting more than $1 million in business revenue for his own use and to tax evasion, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Dr. Leonard Marino, 50, of Johnston who is the president and sole shareholder of Chiropractic Associates LLC admitted in court that he created schemes to divert close to $1.1 million in income generated by his Providence-based practice to his own personal use between 2016 and 2019, the office said.
A “significant amount” of Chiropractic Associates’ income came from “insurance company payments for bodily injury claims” that are submitted by law firms via checks on behalf of some of Marino’s patients. Marino, the office said, admitted he devised schemes to cash “many” of those checks and after a bank raised concerns about his check-cashing practices, he “requested that the law firms make checks payable to him personally, which they did.”
Marino also admitted that he failed in 2017 to report $531,408 in gross income, which would have resulted in approximately $239,945 in due taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
Marino is scheduled to be sentenced May 7. He faces up to five years in prison, fines and a three-year term of supervised release.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
