article_snippet: Menendez has also repaid Melgen $58,500 for the value of plane trips Menendez took on the doctor's private jet, mostly to the posh Dominican Republic resot Casa de Campo.
article_snippet: CNN reported that Melgen was one of the Medicare system's most-reimbursed doctors nationwide, during the years when Melgen was also a major donor to Menendez and to the Majority PAC.
article_snippet: That political action committee, run by former Reid staffers, collected more than $700,000 from Melgen and made sure $600,000 of Melgen benefited Menendez’s re-election campaign.
article_snippet: THE DOCTOR: Salomon Melgen, a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist and a major Bob Menendez donor, was ordered to pay back Medicare for $8.9 million in overbillings, and Bob Menendez intervened with HHS for Bob Menendez .
article_snippet: Melgen, The senator's donor, controlled a company that offered similar equipment and wanted a contract proposal with the Islamic Republic to go through.
article_snippet: Melgen controlled a company that wanted a Dominican ports contract to sell x-ray equipment used to screen cargo containers for drugs.
article_snippet: In 2013 FBI agents and investigators from HHS raided Melgen's West Palm Beach, Florida medical office, Vitreo-Retinal Consultants.
article_snippet: The Washington Post reported at the time that HHS auditors had raised red flags over the large number of eye surgeries and laser treatments Melgen's practice billed to Medicare.
article_snippet: Other news reports described an alleged scheme in which Melgen used leftover fluid from single-use injection vials to treat two or three additional patients, billing Medicare for a new vial with each treatment.
article_snippet: The government typically paid $2,000 for each container, raising the possibility that Melgen could have overbilled Medicare between $4,000 and $6,000 per vial.