LOS ANGELES
A federal jury has found two Los Angeles pharmacy owners guilty for their participation in a $35 million health care fraud and money laundering scheme to bill Medicare for medications that were never provided and to launder the proceeds of the fraud, authorities announced Wednesday.
After an 11-day trial that ended Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Los Angeles, Aleksandr Suris, 51, and Maxim Sverdlov, 44, both of Sherman Oaks, were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Suris was also found guilty of one additional count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and six additional counts of health care fraud. Both defendants were found not guilty of three counts of healthcare fraud.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18, officials stated.
According to the evidence, from 2012 to 2015, Suris and Sverdlov fraudulently billed Medicare and CIGNA for prescription medications that were not actually dispensed to beneficiaries by the pharmacy they owned, Royal Care Pharmacy, according to officials.
In order to hide the fraud, Suris and Sverdlov obtained fake invoices from a co-conspirator to make it appear as if Royal Care had purchased the medicines it had billed Medicare for when it had not.
The evidence further established that Suris and Sverdlov also used these fake invoices to launder the proceeds of the fraud through the co-conspirator.
DOJ NOTED:
This case was investigated by the HHS-OIG, FBI, IRS-CI, and the California Department of Justice, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Assistant Chief Daniel J. Griffin and Trial Attorney Robyn N. Pullio of the Fraud Section are prosecuting the case.
The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in 12 cities across the country, has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion.
In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
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