Doctor In Bath Beach Medicare Fraud Scheme Gets 12 Years And $51 Million Penalty

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“Don’t Gossip” (N.Vatolina, N. Desinov, 1941)

A Staten Island doctor received over a dozen years in prison and an enormous $51 million penalty for his role in a Bath Beach medicare fraud scheme that saw the perpetrators spending lavishly on luxury cars, clothing and jewelry. SI Live is reporting that Dr. Gustave Drivas had received $500,000 for his role in the scheme, leading to his harsh sentence.

The scam took place at Bath Beach and Bensonhurst area clinics, including Bay Medical Care PC (8686 Bay Parkway), SVS Wellcare Medical PLLC (7616 Bay Parkway) and SZS Medical Care PLLC (8686 Bay Parkway). Previously we had reported that the federal bust fingered 12 individuals in the scheme that netted over $70 million for the perpetrators. At the time of the arrests, a poster made by Soviet WWII-era propaganda illustrator Nina Vatolina hung on the wall which warned, “Don’t Gossip.” The poster was located in the secret “kickback room” where the illicit cash allegedly exchanged hands.

In May, we reported on the guilty plea entered by Maksim “Max” Shelikhov, 29, who used his cut of the millions to buy a BMW, a Mercedes-Benz, an Aston Martin, a Range Rover and a $100,000 diamond engagement ring for his then girlfriend.

SI Live described the role the 58-year-old Drivas played in the scheme:

Dr. Drivas was a “no-show” physician who rarely visited the medical clinic he directed in Brooklyn’s Bath Beach section, prosecutors said. Even so, he charged more than $20 million on his Medicare billing number for procedures and services that weren’t performed, said Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Dr. Drivas received more than $500,000 for his role in the scam, prosecutors said.
“Abandoning the mandate to ‘do no harm,’ Dr. Drivas was instead up to no good,” Ms. Lynch said in a statement. “Drivas put personal greed before patient care and was willing to sell his Medicare billing number for cash in his pocket.”

Since Drivas was caught with the other fraudsters, he has since lost his medical licence, and been forced to pay back $511,000 on top of the $51 million restitution penalty he now owes the government.