Nephrologica, which also did business as the World Kidney Network, charged unlawful fees in exchange for sham assistance in locating living kidney donors. Nephrologica’s website stated that it provided “the quickest, most efficient process to locate a living compatible donor (as little as two weeks in extreme cases),” “Healthy Living Compatible Donors,” and pre- and post-operative assistance. It provided none of these services. The company posted ads and fake testimonials on Internet sites, looking for consumers.

Attorney General Schneiderman's Health Care Bureau launched an investigation into the company when a consumer called the bureau hotline and complained that he had paid $6,000 to Nephrologica for help locating a living donor for his mother, who was suffering from kidney disease, and that the company refused to give him a refund after months of failing to provide help. The out-of-state complainant first posted a message on an Internet bulletin board in July 2011 seeking help finding a kidney donor. The investigation showed that Goldstein, using a fake name, had replied to the man's post by email and falsely claimed that Nephrologica had been able to obtain a kidney donor for another client in just seven months, that it had coordinated and or assisted in the coordination of more than 2,000 transplants, that the transplant donors were living donors from more than 20 countries and that Nephrologica had been successful with 100% of the people who had come for help in finding a compatible donor. It found that Nephrologica had used fake references. All the claims were fake.