CFO of former Malden medical device supplier sentenced to prison term for bribing surgeons in kickback scheme

Cambridge man, 41, directed payment of over $540,000 in bribes in ongoing scam paying surgeons to use SpineFrontier products

  The following info is based on a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The Chief Financial Officer of SpineFrontier, Inc., a spinal implant company that was formerly based in Malden, has been sentenced to a prison term and a fine for a kickback scheme to bribe surgeons to use company products in exchange for false consulting fees. Aditya Humad, 41, of Cambridge, was sentenced on Aug. 6, 2026,  in Boston by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to four months in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $9,500 fine. In May 2026, Humad pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. Humad was charged in September 2021 along with Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, SpineFrontier’s Founder, President and CEO.

Humad conspired to pay and direct the payment of over $540,000 in bribes to surgeons in the form of sham consulting fees for work they did not perform. Humad conspired to bribe surgeons to use SpineFrontier’s products, and in turn, SpineFrontier received millions of dollars in revenue from surgeries the surgeons performed.

“This sentence is the culmination of years of dogged pursuit of SpineFrontier, its executives, Aditya Humad and Kingsley Chin, and multiple bribe-taking doctors. Aditya Humad now stands convicted and sentenced for conspiracy to pay bribes to physicians to induce them to use products in complicated spine surgeries,” said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley.

“In criminal and civil proceedings, we have recovered more than $4 million from these executives, their companies and the physicians who took their bribes,” the U.S. Attorney added. “Let these resolutions serve as notice that no matter how long it takes, and how sophisticated the scheme, we will crack down on health care fraud offenses.”

“This corporate scheme sought to corruptly influence surgeons by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to induce the use of SpineFrontier’s medical devices in surgeries,” said the Special Agent in Charge at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG), Roberto Coviello.

“Humad’s actions undermined critical safeguards designed to protect patients and the integrity of taxpayer funded health care programs. HHS OIG, working closely with our law enforcement partners, will continue to hold accountable individuals and executives who engage in such illegal schemes,” Coviello added.

“As the Chief Financial Officer of SpineFrontier, Inc., Aditya Humad conspired to bribe surgeons to use his company’s products – and paid them more than a half million dollars in sham consulting fees for work they did not perform – in an effort to boost the company’s bottom line,” said the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, Ted E. Docks.

“Kickback schemes like this not only violate federal law, but they erode the public’s trust in our health care system. That’s why the FBI, and our partners, will continue to ensure individuals who put their company’s profits ahead of patient care are brought to justice,” FBI Special Agent Docks added.

“This sentencing sends a clear message that the VA Office of Inspector General will work diligently to ensure that individuals who conspire to pay kickbacks to influence medical decisions are held accountable,” said the Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office OIG’s Northeast Field Office, Christopher Algieri. “The VA OIG thanks the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal law enforcement partners for their collaboration and exceptional work in pursuing justice in this case.”

Humad conspired with SpineFrontier to enter into contracts with surgeons, agreeing to pay the surgeons between $250 and $1,000 per hour for purported consulting for SpineFrontier. However, in reality, Humad directed SpineFrontier to pay the surgeons for using SpineFrontier’s products. Although the surgeon-consulting program was purportedly directed at gathering technical feedback about SpineFrontier’s products, Humad used the bribes they paid pursuant to that program to induce surgeons to use SpineFrontier’s products in surgeries that were paid for by federal health care programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Health Administration. Additionally, the surgeons frequently spent only a small fraction of their reported time, if any, performing actual consulting.

Humad previously agreed to pay a fine pursuant to a civil settlement agreement, including a fixed amount totaling more than $150,000 (including interest) and potential additional contingency payments based upon his annual income.

In May 2025, Chin pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He was subsequently sentenced in August 2025 by Judge Talwani to one year of supervised release with the first six months to be served in home confinement. Chin was also ordered to pay a fine of $9,500 in addition to $40,000 he personally agreed to pay as part of a related civil settlement and $855,000 that his wholly-owned company agreed to pay as part of the same settlement.

In related criminal prosecutions, in August 2020, surgeon Jason Montone, D.O., 50, of Lawson, Miss., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and obstruction. Medical device distributor John Balzer, 48, of Lenexa, Kan., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and one count of witness tampering. Montone and Balzer are scheduled to be sentenced in September 2026.

In related civil enforcement, in March 2020, five doctors agreed to pay civil settlements to resolve allegations of accepting sham consulting fees in violation of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute: Dr. F. Paul DeGenova agreed to pay $486,985; Dr. Michael Murray agreed to pay $330,668; Dr. Joseph Shehadi agreed to pay $323,419; Dr. Agha Khan agreed to pay $310,843; and Dr. John Atwater agreed to pay $105,149. In April 2020, Dr. John Carlson agreed to pay $1.75 million to resolve the same allegations.