Psychiatrist gets more than 8 years in prison for billing government, insurers for millions of dollars worth of procedures and visits he never conducted

A federal judge today sentenced Dr. Gustavo Kinrys of Wellesley to 99 months - 8 1/4 years - in prison for the way he dunned insurers, including Medicare, for millions of dollars for transcranial magnetic stimulation procedures and psychotherapy sessions he never actually conducted.

A jury in Boston federal court convicted Kinrys, who was on the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital, on seven counts of wire fraud, six counts of false statements relating to health care matters and one count of
obstruction in October.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of more than 11 years:

Kinrys' crimes were not the result of a one-time lapse in judgment. They were not the product of a desperate individual in dire financial straits trying to provide for his family, or someone caught in the throes of addiction. Unlike many defendants who come to this courthouse to be sentenced, Kinrys had options. He was a highly educated doctor who had trained at elite academic institutions. He held positions at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In addition to that, he had a successful private psychiatric practice. At the time he embarked on his audacious scheme, Kinrys had just moved into a $1.8 million home in an upscale, Wellesley neighborhood. He and his family were secure. But he wanted more. With the proceeds of his fraud, Kinrys purchased a $2.1 million vacation home on Nantucket and spent over $600,000 on jewelry from Cartier, Truefacet, and Vean Cleef & Arpels.

The motivation for Kinrys' was simple - greed. When Kinrys was finally forced to answer for his conduct, a jury found him guilty of seven counts of wire fraud, six counts of false statements relating to health care matters, and one count of obstruction. At that point, rather than accepting any responsibility or demonstrating any remorse, Kinrys doubled down. He blamed everyone else. He belittled and threatened his own lawyer. He declared that his prosecutors would one day face "a reckoning" and that "Karma was a bitch." He continued to pursue frivolous lawsuits he had filed against his victims - the insurance companies - in the month before his October 2023 trial, alleging that these defrauded insurers actually owed him money. Kinrys continues to deny what a jury has concluded beyond a reasonable doubt: he lied over and over again to get millions of dollars he wasn't entitled to, and he obstructed justice repeatedly in an attempt to keep those millions.

Kinrys's attorney called for a sentence of five years, arguing that while Kinrys broke the law, he was a good, conscientious physician who, if anything, simply worked too hard. Besides, if he was such a corrupt doctor, surely other doctors at Mass. General would have noticed:

Defendant was on staff at MGH for fifteen years until he was charged. He could not have treated his patients carelessly without escaping notice of referring fellow psychiatrists and his department superior. Kinrys' referrals came through his department. Kinrys, despite having committed a persistent significant fraud, was still a good and active clinician and researcher. He didn't just treat patients; he attended to them with outstanding care. He also advanced the medical sciences. See, e.g., Kinrys' publications listed on Google Scholar.

Kinrys faces a hearing on July 25 to determine just how much he will owe in restitution. The government argues he should be ordered to pay insurers $5.7 million; his attorney says the amount should be no more than $4.3 million.