O.C. Surgeon Sentenced to Over 2 Years in Prison for Accepting Over $300,000 in Illicit Payments to Perform Surgeries at Corrupt Hospital

LOS ANGELES – An Orange County orthopedic surgeon was sentenced today to 33 months in federal prison for accepting more than $315,000 in bribes and kickbacks for performing spinal surgeries at a now-defunct Long Beach hospital whose owner later was imprisoned for committing a massive workers’ compensation insurance fraud.

David Hobart Payne, 66, of Irvine, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton, who also ordered him to a pay a fine of $20,000, and to forfeit $316,597 in ill-gotten gains.

At the conclusion of a six-day trial, a federal jury on March 3 found Payne guilty of one count of conspiracy, two counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count of use of an interstate facility in aid of bribery.

Read the entire press release.  US Department of Justice, Central District of California, July 14, 2023

NICB assisted the investigation.