Four separate indictments, charging 17 individuals, have been handed down in New York in an investigation into large healthcare fraud and money laundering schemes.
Federal investigators have searched the offices of 12 durable medical equipment retailers in South Brooklyn and seized bank accounts maintained by the companies.
Those charged allegedly submitted invoices to private insurance companies through no-fault insurance plans for reimbursable expenses for durable medical equipment at prices well above that what they had paid, as well as for durable medical equipment that was never obtained.
Payments to the wholesale companies were laundered and cycled back to the defendants, investigators said.
"Those who engage in such schemes are on notice that they will be met with the full force of law enforcement," said United States Attorney Loretta E. Lynch.
"Healthcare fraud is a multibillion-dollar plague on the U.S. economy annually, and it affects the cost and availability of private and public insurance for everyone," said FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge George C. Venizelos. "Durable medical equipment fraud is a large part of the problem. The cure is the continuing commitment by the FBI and our partners to ferret out those who engage in these frauds, whose prognosis is a possible 20-year prison term."
The defendants, all of New York, are Aleksandr Afanasev, Eduard Bodrunov, Grigory Branfenbrenner, Gennadiy Bronshteyn, Lyubov Groysman, Vladimir Khelnitski, Iliya Mugerman, Bela Rud, Viktor Semerik, Arkadi Shapiro, Denis Zagladko, Igor Shturman, Mariya Gomelskaya, Igor Vetukh, Andrei Kozlovski, Igor Ladanov and Artem Yuryev.