A Freehold, N.J., man who operated a pair of medical billing firms was sentenced to federal prison for defrauding insurance companies by lying about services rendered to patients.

Alexander Sirota, 39, was sentenced to 37 months in prison by a U.S. District Court judge for cheating insurers that provide no-fault medical benefits to motorists, with help from two doctors, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. The insurers were not named by the office.

Sirota must also pay $200,680 in restitution and forfeiture and as part of his plea agreement must pay $1 million in back taxes, penalties and interest to the U.S. government.

In June, Sirota pleaded guilty to four criminal counts. At his plea hearing, Sirota admitted that between April 2001 and June 2005, he conspired with the two doctors to defraud the insurance companies through his two companies, TFS Management Services and ADS Management Services, both located in New Jersey.

Sirota said he, the two doctors – Valery Rimerman, 69, of Closter, N.J., and Irina Zelikson, 48, of Old Bridge, N.J. – and other submitted false bills to insurers for medical treatments never rendered to patients. Sirota also admitted that he and his co-conspirators billed insurers for medical treatments and services rendered by unlicensed and unqualified individuals.

Furthermore, Sirota admitted that the group laundered $200,000 to conceal the scheme and that he conspired with his accountant, Sophie Uber, 63, of White Plains, N.Y., to defraud the IRS by concealing $1 million in taxable income.

Zelikson, Rimerman and Uber have pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme. The three currently await sentencing.

Another co-defendant, Jack Melman, also known as Yaakov Melman, 48, of East Brunswick, N.J., pleaded guilty to tax evasion, but failing to claim nearly $206,000 in income he took from his companies that bought and sold medical supplies in equipment.