$379,000 IN SHAM FEES: SPINE SURGEON AND DISTRIBUTOR SENTENCED
By VA Headlines · Published Nov 3, 2026 · Source dated October 22, 2026 (U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts)
A Missouri spine surgeon was paid $379,000 in sham consulting fees to use SpineFrontier, Inc.'s spinal implants, and he and his Kansas device distributor have now both been sentenced, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston announced October 22, 2026. The VA Office of Inspector General's Northeast Field Office was one of the agencies that announced the case.
The sentences
Jason Montone, DO, 50, of Lawson, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani to one year of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $379,000, the amount DOJ says he received in sham consulting fees. He pleaded guilty in October 2020 to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and obstruction.
John Balzer, 48, of Lenexa, Kan., his SpineFrontier distributor, was sentenced in August 2026 to one year of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $947,500, the amount DOJ says he received in kickback-tainted commissions. He pleaded guilty in September 2020 to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and witness tampering.
DOJ says both men cooperated with the government's investigation.
How the scheme worked, per DOJ
According to the charging documents, from late 2012 to October 2015, SpineFrontier and its CEO and CFO paid Montone through a sham consulting program at $500 to $750 an hour. The program was supposedly for technical feedback, but DOJ says it was used to induce and reward his use of the company's products. SpineFrontier tracked his sales volume to decide what to pay him, regardless of how much consulting he actually did.
SpineFrontier agreed to pay Montone 10% of the revenue from surgeries using its products, and Balzer a 25% commission on revenue from Montone's use of them.
Over the conspiracy, the company paid Balzer over $1.2 million in commissions for products Montone used.
Montone and Balzer claimed he had spent hundreds of hours on consulting. DOJ says he spent only a small fraction of that time.
The rest of the case
DOJ says SpineFrontier CEO Kingsley Chin pleaded guilty in May 2025 to making false statements to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and was sentenced in August 2025. CFO Aditya Humad pleaded guilty in May 2026 to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and was sentenced in August 2026 to four months in prison. In 2020, six other doctors agreed to civil settlements to resolve allegations that they took sham consulting fees from SpineFrontier.
U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley announced the sentences with HHS OIG, the FBI, VA OIG and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Related: VA fraud cases tracker. CVS $315M opioid settlement. Oklahoma medical supply owner gets 14 years. More: all VA Headlines reports. How we report: Methodology & Corrections.
Missouri Surgeon and Kansas Medical Device Distributor Sentenced for Conspiring to Pay and Receive Kickbacks to Induce Use of Spinal Implants and Obstructing a Federal Investigation · October 22, 2026
Read the DOJ release
Both men pleaded guilty in 2020 and cooperated with the investigation, per DOJ. The 2020 civil settlements with other doctors resolved allegations only. VA Headlines reports only what official records say. Spot an error? See our corrections policy.