Long Island Businessman Arrested in $22 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

Long Island Businessman Arrested in $22 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme

A Long Island, New York, businessman was arrested on conspiracy, kickback, and money laundering charges stemming from an alleged scheme to defraud Medicare. The newly unsealed indictment describes the alleged scheme in which Oleg Beretsky and several unindicted co-conspirators, through Beretsky’s company Obest, Inc., targeted and exploited Medicare patients, many of whom were elderly immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Beretsky allegedly developed relationships with these patients in an effort to gain control over decisions regarding their health care providers.

The indictment alleges that Beretsky solicited and received kickbacks from at least six health care providers, to whom Beretsky would refer these patients in exchange for cash payments. The alleged scheme continued from January 2017 to April 2024 and resulted in the submission of more than $22 million of false or fraudulent claims to Medicare, of which Medicare paid more than $12.4 million. To obscure the source of the payments, Beretsky allegedly directed his co-conspirators to send payments to his relatives in cash. If convicted, the government is seeking forfeiture of the money.

Read the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) press release here.

Tennessee Physician’s $700,000 FCA Settlement

Robert Burkich of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his Georgia-based practice, Preventative Medicine Anti-Aging & Chelation, Inc., agreed to settle False Claims Act (FCA) allegations that Burkich submitted claims to Medicare for the administration of medically unnecessary lead poisoning treatment.

For nearly a decade, Burkich allegedly billed Medicare for the administration of edetate calcium disodium (EDTA), knowing the claims were not eligible for reimbursement. EDTA is a rarely used drug with several off-label uses. The drug’s only clinical indication, and only use approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, is for patients suffering from lead poisoning and lead encephalopathy. Medicare heavily regulates reimbursements for EDTA, precluding reimbursement when the drug is used for other purposes. Burkich, however, allegedly falsely represented to Medicare that his patients were suffering from heavy-metal diseases which enabled him to obtain reimbursement.

Burkich and his practice will jointly pay $700,000 to the United States as restitution to Medicare.

Read the DOJ’s press release here.

Doctor Sentenced to 30-Month Imprisonment in Opioid Prescription Scheme

Dr. Wendell Lewis Randall was recently sentenced to a 30-month incarceration followed by two years of supervised release after pleading guilty in the Middle District of North Carolina to one count of health care fraud and one count of money laundering. Randall, the sole physician and owner of the National Institute of Toxicology (NIT), would prescribe opioids to patients, regardless of whether such a prescription was clinically indicated. Randall then required his patients to submit urine samples for drug testing, which was processed in-house at NIT. Randall, through NIT, billed Medicare and Medicaid for these tests, which yielded over $2 million in government reimbursements. Randall then used these proceeds for personal expenses.

Randall’s sentence was ordered to run consecutive to the 18-month sentence he is currently serving in the Western District of Virginia.

Read the DOJ’s press release here.