Four New York doctors are among the 20 detainees charged with organizing a large-scale scheme of health fraud. Criminals managed to bypass Medicaid, Medicare and other publicly funded insurance companies, causing damage of tens of millions of dollars.
The fraudulent scheme lasted 3 years. Criminals targeted the areas with a population receiving low incomes. Information about people was received from job agencies and social canteens. The scheme involved not only doctors, but also recruiters, office employees, managers and business representatives.
To selected “candidates” scammers paid $ 30-40 for visiting the clinic for a completely unnecessary expensive analysis or test. Then the money for the procedure was written off from the insurance account of the allegedly sick person, who as a result could simply visit the clinic, spend no more than an hour there and leave without receiving the service. Funds received at the expense of the clinic, scammers were laundered through bank accounts of shell companies in China, Singapore, Lithuania, Pakistan, Taiwan and Turkey. After that, the money was distributed among the criminals.
The leader of the criminal syndicate was 35-year-old Christina Mirbabaeva from Brooklyn. Her main “business partner” in fraud was Dr. Kurstis, who was responsible for the appointment and passage of the patient procedure.
Among the other defendants: 46-year-old Vladislav Yakubov (Brighton Beach, Brooklyn), who is the manager of the recruiting agency, 49-year-old Kamal Zafar (South Huntington, New York). Financial issues (money laundering) were dealt with by 54-year-old Nathan Yusufov (Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn), 47-year-old Igor Shamaev (Midwood) and 58-year-old Vitaly Ifraimov (Ocean Parkway).
On the money received, members of a criminal organization bought expensive real estate. For example, Mirbabaeva recently purchased an apartment in the center of New York for $ 3.25 million, Yakubov bought an apartment in Brighton Beach for $ 2.8 million.
In total, law enforcement officers discovered 11 real estate items, purchased by criminals allegedly for stolen money, with a total value of more than $ 10 million. The houses and apartments are seized. Also, more than 100 bank accounts belonging to the group members were frozen.
If scammers are found guilty in court, they face a penalty of imprisonment for up to 25 years.
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