Officials: 4 indicted in NJ over $99M pharmacy fraud scheme
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NEWARK, N.J. - Two New York residents and two from New Jersey have been indicted in what authorities say was a $99 million fraud scheme involving pharmacies in both states.
The four owned or worked for pharmacies in Union City, New Jersey and the Bronx. They allegedly used bribes to get doctors to send them prescriptions.
Alex Fleyshmakher, 33, of Morganville, New Jersey, was arrested Monday morning and will appear in federal court this afternoon.
Also charged in the superseding indictment are: Ruben Sevumyants, 36, of Marlboro, New Jersey; and Samuel “Sam” Khaimov, 47, and Yana Shtindler, 44, both of Glen Head, New York. Sevumyants was previously charged by indictment, and Khaimov and Shtindler were each previously charged by complaint.
They allegedly were reimbursed for more than $65 million by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for medications they never sent to patients.
According to the indictment, two of the co-conspirators opened other pharmacies in the Bronx to avoid scrutiny from auditors, and used those to defraud a pharmacy benefit manager out of another $34 million.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.