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Jury Selection Continues In Doctor’s Medicare Fraud Trial

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Jury selection heads into a third day in the Medicare fraud trial of a prominent Florida eye doctor, Salomon Melgen.

Attorneys failed to pick a jury Tuesday, but hope to finish Wednesday and have opening statements Thursday. The panel is to decide whether the 62-year-old doctor stole millions from Medicare between 2004 and 2013.

Federal prosecutors say Melgen prescribed unneeded treatments, filed claims for procedures he never performed and charged for medicine he never purchased.

If convicted, Melgen faces up to 610 years in prison. He is free on $18 million bond. He faces a bribery trial this fall in New Jersey with Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez.

Melgen has pleaded not guilty.