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Ajit Jayaram, a 65-year-old internist whose office was in Jersey City, must spend at least eight years behind bars before he is eligible for parole, after admitting in February that he owed one of the targets, pharmacist Mukhtar Ahmed, $250,000 and was worried that his wife — a Brooklyn neurologist — would learn of his affair with another woman.
The two men “had a prior failed business relationship and were involved in ongoing disputes over a woman,” state Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said.
Jayaram also admitted in Superior Court in Jersey City that he accepted Medicaid payments for bogus exams and other procedures that either weren’t medically necessary or not done at all.
Jayaram accepted the nine-year sentence in exchange for guilty pleas to two counts of first-degree attempted murder and one count each of second-degree health-care claims fraud and third-degree Medicaid fraud.
He will then remain under supervision for five years after his release, and his license has been suspended by the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners.
“This doctor saw murder as the solution to all of his problems, including a messy affair, a major debt, and a despised business partner who threatened to expose his infidelity,” Chiesa said. “Fortunately, Jayaram’s plot to hire a hit man to kill both his lover and his ex-partner was uncovered in time to avoid bloodshed and send him to prison for many years.”
According to Chiesa, neither Jayaram’s lover nor his former business partner — with whom he’d had trouble over business and women — were in any danger:
“The ‘hitman’ hired by the defendant was actually a confidential informant working for the state,” he said, adding that “the actions of the defendant and the informant were being closely monitored by state detectives.”
Deputy Attorney General Peter Sepulveda represented the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at the plea hearing. Detective Kevin Gannon and Sgt. Frederick Weidman handled the investigation for the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.
Chiesa credited several members of Jersey City Police Department’s Special Investigation Unit who were assigned to the investigation — among them, Chief Thomas Comey, Lt. Fred Younger, Sgt. Anthony Musante, Sgt. Ed Nestor, Detective Wael Shahid, Detective Jeff Guilfoyle, Detective Vincent Disbrow, Police Officer Alex Torres, Police Officer Chris Dolan, Police Officer Eamon Nally, Police Officer Joseph Anzivino and Detective Erik Infantes.
He also thanked Assistant Prosecutor Michael D’Andrea and other members of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office “for their valuable assistance.”
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