2 Sentenced in Worker Comp Case : Fraud: Beverly Hills doctor and ex-wife plead no contest. Amount recovered is a record for such cases.

A Beverly Hills doctor accused of masterminding one of the biggest workers’ compensation scams in California history--bilking insurance companies out of at least $30 million--was sentenced Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court after pleading no contest to four counts of criminal conspiracy and fraud.

The physician, Mark Kaplan, 55, was joined in court by his ex-wife and office administrator, Polina Ioffe, 50, who pleaded no contest to a single count of conspiracy. Authorities said the couple’s business--which operated under a variety of names, including Harper Medical and Park Medical--recruited thousands of laid-off workers and persuaded or duped them into making false on-the-job injury claims from 1988 to 1992.

Under plea agreements reached with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, Kaplan and Ioffe will pay fines and restitution expected to amount to $7.5 million--a sum prosecutors called the largest ever recovered in a state fraud case.

In addition, Kaplan will be sentenced to eight years in state prison and Ioffe will receive a two-year term, although their actual time in prison is expected to be substantially less than that. They will also forfeit claims to an estimated $10 million to $20 million in outstanding medical bills submitted by their clinics to insurers and employers.

The case easily marks the biggest legal victory by the district attorney’s office in its battle against workers’ compensation fraud. The office had been criticized by employer groups and insurance carriers for moving too slowly to convict the masterminds behind the allegedly widespread fraud that has plagued Southern California in recent years.

On Thursday, however, prosecutors were exultant. The case shows that “if you rip off the system and get caught, you’re going to prison,” said Rebecca Noblin, the deputy district attorney who was lead prosecutor in the case.

Along with insurance companies and employers, prosecutors said, genuinely injured workers and job-seekers were victimized. Officials said some people with job-related injuries went to the Kaplan clinics hoping to receive needed medical attention; instead, they were simply whisked through the clinics without getting proper care, or sometimes were treated by therapists lacking proper certification.

About the time Kaplan and Ioffe were arrested at their Beverly Hills estate in July, 1993, another nine employees of the enterprise were charged. Seven of those arrested previously pleaded guilty, receiving jail terms of 30 days to six months. Another employee was granted immunity in exchange for testimony; the remaining employee, also a suspect in an unrelated homicide case, is at large.

Prosecutors said Kaplan and Ioffe’s operation recruited workers or job-seekers to make work injury claims that, in turn, were used to generate inflated or bogus medical bills. The enterprise sought recruits by advertising in Spanish and other foreign-language newspapers and broadcast media, sometimes calling itself an employment agency.

Those drawn to the bogus agency typically would be directed to an affiliated clinic, where where they would be put through a battery of unnecessary, overpriced medical tests. Kaplan’s company often charged insurers $8,000 to $12,000 per patient for an initial medical evaluation, prosecutors said.

While some job-seekers knowingly participated in the workers’ comp scam, others unwittingly went through the medical tests believing they were required for employment, prosecutors said.

Thursday’s appearance before Superior Court Judge Nancy Brown stretched on for five hours as the defendants repeatedly balked at terms of the plea agreement. Finally, they entered pleas of “no contest” rather than the standard “guilty,” even after Brown told them that both pleas would mean the same thing.

Defense lawyers said Kaplan and Ioffe’s concerns about the welfare of their two sons, ages 22 and 13, were pivotal in their decision to enter into the plea bargains. Under the agreement, they noted, the family would be left with $2.5 million in assets. Also, Ioffe could be free by September or October, given the time she has already served and anticipated time off for good behavior.

Prosecutors said they entered the plea agreement to save taxpayers the expense of a long trial and because of the unprecedented penalties and the length of the prison terms.