In New York, immigrants from the Soviet Union earned on insurance fraud $ 146 million

In New York, a major fraudulent scheme in the field of health is disclosed, the damage from which amounted to about 150 million dollars. About this on Tuesday, December 5, the Brooklyn district prosecutor Eric Gonzalez reported Runyweb.

20 people were arrested in this case, including doctors and a NYPD surgeon. They are suspected of exploiting the vulnerability of low-income Brooklyn people to deceive state programs. Medicaid and Medicare. Most of those arrested are from former Soviet republics.

“The defendants allegedly stole millions of dollars from government insurance companies,” Gonzalez said at a news conference in New York, standing in front of a table on which wads of cash, jewelry and expensive designer bags were laid out from the arrestees. “Ultimately, this money is stolen from our pockets,” he emphasized, referring to New York taxpayers.

According to the prosecutor's office, 35-year-old Kristina Mirbabaeva was at the head of the fraudulent scheme, according to information on social networks, who came to the United States from Samarkand. At least, that's where she graduated from high school and university.

According to an investigation conducted at both the city and federal levels, for the period from January 1 2015 to November 30 2017, fraudsters managed to appropriate at least $ 146 million state dollars.

The indictment of the 878 points contains, in particular, allegations of corruption, conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering and fraud in health care.

The scam was that special recruiters offered from $ 30 to $ 40 to people who were entitled to social benefits, so that they would receive insurance and agreed to be examined in one of the clinics included in the fraudulent scheme. Such clinics were located in Bedford-Styvesant, Sheikhshed Bay, Canarsie, Crayvesend and Crown Heights.

Potential patients were searched in places where mostly low-income citizens live. In particular, the indictments feature a free canteen for the poor in East New York and a job center in Bushwick. Recruiters received from $ 30 to $ 50 for each patient recruited.

It was enough for the state insurance holder to come once to the specified medical office and undergo a completely unnecessary procedure costing from $ 25 to $ 50, after which the number of his insurance policy was repeatedly used to receive money for medical care.

The law enforcement officer who pretended to be a patient spent less than an hour in one of these offices, after which his health insurance received a bill for 18 for a variety of procedures that would take at least 12 hours.

The fraudulent money was laundered through front companies around the world.

At the same time, Mrs. Mirbabayeva constantly boasted in social networks with luxurious travels and expensive purchases - jewelry, designer bags and clothes. In addition, she bought apartments in the most expensive and prestigious part of Brooklyn for $ 3,25 million, and one of her partners - an apartment for $ 2,8 million in the area of ​​Brighton Beach.

Besides Mirbabayeva herself, her husband Alexander Kopenkin and mother Irina Fedorova were involved in the fraudulent scheme. All three were handcuffed out of the penthouse, where they lived.

Photo: Brooklyn District Attorney

4 physician Hamid Alam, Jeffrey Chess, Kevin Curtis and Robert Vaccarino also participated in the scam. The latter served in the New York Police Department. The NYNP 61-year-old surgeon was responsible for "deciphering" fictitious analyzes. All of them are currently in custody.

In addition, among those arrested were the heads of medical offices Boris Kibil, Vladislav Yakubov and Kamal Zafar, as well as office managers Sukhrob Kabilov and Albert Normatov.

In addition, African-American 4: Donny Bryant (aka Malik), Darren Ford, Deon Johnson and David Riley, who recruited patients, were arrested; as well as those involved in money laundering Gledis Leiser, Vitalik Ifraimov, Igor Shamaev and Natan Yusufov.

All 20 prisoners face imprisonment from 25 to life. They have already confiscated stolen millions, as well as 11 real estate. In addition, 100 bank accounts involved in the fraudulent scheme were arrested.

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