Attorney General William Tong and United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut today announced a $495,721 false claims settlement with Norwalk-based Advanced Dental Center PC (“Advanced Dental”), and its owners Tal Yossefi and Elad Yossefi, resolving allegations that they violated state and federal False Claims Act statutes through prohibited fees paid to a “patient recruiting” company. This is the fourth settlement arising from ongoing joint civil investigations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the federal Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into alleged kickback-tainted claims for services rendered to Connecticut Medicaid patients referred by third-party patient recruiting companies. “Paying kickbacks for patient recruitment is illegal. Dentists participating in Connecticut’s public healthcare programs are responsible for knowing the law. This is the fourth settlement arising from ongoing joint investigations, and we will continue to work closely with our state and federal partners to aggressively protect the integrity of our public healthcare programs,” said Attorney General Tong.