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TRENTON By all accounts, three prominent doctors who were sentenced to three years' probation yesterday for income tax evasion were kind, compassionate and charitable. At the sentencing hearings, U.S. District Court Judge Mary L. Cooper pointed to the many letters she had received on their behalf, including more than 200 for Dr. Louis Tsarouhas alone. But Cooper noted the laudatory letters did not excuse the fact that they had broken the law. "This financial crime is a serious crime," Cooper said. She pronounced it her "unhappy duty" to sentence the physicians. Tsarouhas, 47, and his former partners Dr. Giacomo Mangiaracina, 46, and Dr. Brian Shaffer, 53, are required to pay at least $200,000 each and will have to disband their practice, Mercerville Medical Associates. They also face losing their licenses. The doctors failed to report income that they received in alleged kickbacks from Nu-Tek Diagnostic Laboratories in Langhorne, Pa., for steering business there. The charges cover the tax years 2001, 2002 and 2003. Jerome Balloratto, the lawyer for Tsarouhas, said his client, a general practitioner, wanted to make amends and has cooperated with the government. Tsarouhas, who paid $245,452 in restitution, penalties and interest, told Cooper that he was ashamed of what happened and said, "I will rededicate myself to altruism." Since April he has worked at a free clinic one day a week, he said. Mangiaracina, who paid $201,000 to the IRS, also said that he was ashamed. His lawyer, Joseph A. Hayden Jr. added, "Yes, they made a mistake. It was venal conduct." He said Mangiaracina provided care to the indigent and was willing to testify against others if the government needed him to do that. Shaffer has paid $67,000 of the $202,000 that he owes the government, said his lawyer, Alfred C. DeCotiis. Shaffer will have to sell a piece of property to repay the remainder, DeCotiis said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna asked Cooper to sentence the doctors, who might have faced five years in prison, to probation instead because of the help they had given the government. Because of their help, Asim Niaz and Taquir Khan, both of Titusville, who were principals in Nu-Tek, pleaded guilty to violations of the kickback statute and tax evasion, McKenna said. They will probably be sentenced to 18 to 24 months in jail in September by Judge Anne Thompson, he said. Meanwhile, the doctor's practice, Mercerville Medical Associates, which was charged with obstructing a federal health care investigation, will be disbanded. Cooper imposed a $15,000 fine on the corporation which will be paid by the three doctors. A fourth physician, Dr. Demetrios Pedikis, who practiced at Mercerville, was not charged in the case and was not named in the charge against the practice. Meanwhile, the three doctors also face hearings before the state Board of Medical Examiners which might suspend their licenses due to their conviction on the federal charge. Cooper said she would make the letters she received on the doctors' behalf available to the board. "I don't think I've had so many letters in a sentencing," she said.
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