Baller Alert Entertainment & Lifestyle
Two gangs were apprehended Wednesday in what the feds are calling one of the largest fraud busts in history after they enlisted the help of trusted professionals to steal $100 million from insurance companies.
Following an investigation by the Justice Department, the NYPD, and the Westchester County District Attorney’s office, more than a dozen people were arrested, including a New York City Officer.
According to reports, officials said in a news release that both criminal organizations would bribe police dispatchers and health-care staff for information about car accident victims, who they would then connect with fraudulent doctors who performed unnecessary medical treatments. The gangs would then overbill insurance companies in order to take advantage of New York and New Jersey’s car insurance laws, which force them to pay for victims’ medical bills in certain circumstances.
More than a dozen medical organizations were paid to use their legitimate licenses to conduct the first criminal enterprise, which Alexander “Little Alex” Gulkarov headed.
According to authorities, Aronov is alleged to have combed through department computers for information about accident victims while runners bribed public servants to reveal confidential information in order to direct victims to the gangs’ doctors.
Investigators claimed that doctors Rolando “Chuma” Chumaceiro and Marcelo Quiroga “incorporated medical practices as part of the scheme, prescribed unnecessary and excessive medical treatments and overbilled insurance companies under the No-Fault Laws.”
According to the feds, Robert Wisnicki, a New York lawyer, was hired to launder money and deceive law enforcement.
If convicted, Gulkarov and his co-conspirators Roman Israilov, Peter Khaimov, and Anthony DiPietro could face more than three decades.
In connection to the conspiracy, Wisnicki faces a 25-year sentence, the doctors face up to ten years, and Aronov faces up to five years.
The second crew, led by Bradley Pierre, was even more lucrative, running five health care companies through bribes and kickbacks over a 13-year period to the tune of $70 million in profits.
Dr. Marvin Moy, who allegedly performed “unnecessary and painful electrodiagnostic testing on patients,” and Dr. William Weiner, who allegedly fabricated “findings of clinical injury in MRIs in order to boost patient referrals,” were also accused of working closely with Pierre.
According to the release, Runner Andrew Prime and paralegal Arthur Borgoraz were tasked with collecting information to perpetuate the scheme.
If convicted of fraud and conspiracy, Pierre faces 37 years behind bars; the doctors face 30 years. Borgoraz and Prime face five years each.
“No-fault accident schemes, like the one alleged today, can cost insurance companies millions of dollars in payouts to doctors and clinics who provide phony or unnecessary services to unwitting accident victims,” FBI Assistant Director Michael Driscoll said.
“This cost is almost always passed to consumers of private insurance or subsidized programs established to help those in need.”
