Calif. Surgeon Sentenced To 5 Years in Prison for Accepting $3.3M in Illicit Payments

LOS ANGELES – A neurosurgeon was sentenced today to 60 months in federal prison for accepting approximately $3.3 million in bribes for performing spinal surgeries at a now-defunct Long Beach hospital whose owner later was imprisoned for committing a massive workers’ compensation system scam. 

Lokesh S. Tantuwaya, 55, of San Diego, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton, who also ordered him to forfeit his ill-gotten gains of $3.3 million. 

Tantuwaya pleaded guilty on September 1 to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud and to receive illegal payments for health care referrals. He has been in federal custody since May 2021 after he was found to have violated the terms of his pretrial release. 

Read the entire press release. 

NICB assisted the investigation.