Prohibited medical practice owner has been arrested for tax evasion

A 67-year-old Monmouth County man has been arrested for tax evasion.

Raymond J. Salani Jr., of Morganville, was charged with two counts of tax evasion in an indictment that was unsealed on Tuesday.

Salani appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni in Trenton federal court and was released on a $50,000 unsecured bond.

According to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, Salani was the president and owner of Medical Nutrition Inc., which purportedly provided management services to Lifestyles Medical LLC, a medical practice also controlled by Salani.

Salani, who was not a licensed physician, was prohibited under New Jersey law from owning a medical practice and employing licensed healthcare professionals.

To conceal his ownership and control of Lifestyles Medical, Salani employed a licensed physician to work at Lifestyles Medical on a part-time basis and act as nominee owner of Lifestyles Medical.

However, at all relevant times, Salani acted as the true owner of Lifestyles Medical, managed the day-to-day operations of Lifestyles Medical, and exercised control over the financial accounts of both Lifestyles Medical and Medical Nutrition.

Between January 2016 and May 2017, Salani attempted to conceal his income from the IRS and evade the assessment of federal income taxes by transferring income earned by Lifestyles Medical into the business bank account for Medical Nutrition, purportedly as payments to Medical Nutrition for management services rendered to Lifestyles Medical.

From there, Salani used the funds from Medical Nutrition’s business bank account to pay for personal expenses, including mortgage payments on his personal residence, payments to pay down balances on a personal credit card account in his spouse’s name, and payments for a personal vehicle leased by Salani.

Federal law required Salani to report the income he received from Medical Nutrition to the IRS on his personal income tax returns for tax years 2016 and 2017.

Salani failed to file a personal income tax return for tax year 2016 and failed to report any of the income he received through Medical Nutrition on his personal income tax return for tax year 2017.

Salani failed to report $232,739 of taxable income that he received through Medical Nutrition in tax years 2016 and 2017, resulting in the evasion of $87,635 in tax due and owing.

Salani’s arrest is the result of an investigation by the IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

The charges of tax evasion carry a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.