Shhh! Feds Charge Three Area Medical Clinics With Fraud

A federal Medicare fraud task force has charged five individuals with conspiring to launder profits from defrauding Medicare at three local medical clinics.

According to an FBI press release, Larisa Shelabadova, 34, Alexander Zaretser, 31, Anatoly Kraiter, 33, Vladimir Kornev, 52, and Yelena Galper, 38 were charged by the Brooklyn Medicare Fraud Strike Force for their participation in the money laundering scheme. The release also states that five other individuals were charged from a previous indictment dating back to October 2010.

The latest indictment names 12 individuals residing in three different boroughs – including the five named here who live in Brooklyn.

The clinics involved in the scheme include Bay Medical Care PC (8686 Bay Parkway), SVS Wellcare Medical PLLC (7616 Bay Parkway) and SZS Medical Care PLLC (8686 Bay Parkway).

Bensonhurst Bean found another Bay Medical Care advertised as a psychiatric care facility at 7612 Bay Parkway, which puts it just a couple of doors down from Wellcare Medical. When we attempted to reach the clinic by phone, there was no answer.

Bay Medical Center had been named during a previous fraud bust in July 2010. One curious item recovered during that raid was a sign in the clinic’s “kickback room” – where illicit money allegedly changed hands. A Soviet WWII-era propaganda poster by the illustrator Nina Vatolina hung on the wall, complete with the following snitches get stitches-esque verse from Soviet poet Samuil Marshak:

Keep your eyes open.
These days
Even the walls have ears.
Chatter and gossip
Go hand in hand with
Treason

Because defrauding taxpayers during a time of austerity measures and budget cuts is so not treason, you guys!

The FBI also stated that the prosecution team in the case will include Sarah Hall and Katherine Houston from the Fraud Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, as well as Eastern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen J. Meyer and William Campos.

To learn more about the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), please visit www.stopmedicarefraud.gov.