WASHINGTON (US DOJ) — California doctor Violetta Mailyan was sentenced on October 29 to 15 years in prison for using her medical practice to fraudulently bill Medicare more than $45 million for Botox injection services that were medically unnecessary and never provided.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Glendale, California, owned and operated Healthy Way Medical Center, a clinic that purported to provide beauty and cosmetic services.
Although Medicare reimburses medical providers for Botox injections when necessary to treat documented cases of chronic migraines, Mailyan billed and received payments for thousands of injections that were never provided, were provided only for cosmetic purposes, or were given to patients whose primary care physicians had not referred them for treatment of chronic migraines. Evidence also showed that Mailyan billed for thousands of injections, representing over $19 million, purportedly provided on days when her clinic was closed. Mailyan also billed for providing Botox injections when she was actually on vacation in Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, and New York at various times throughout her fraud scheme. For example, Mailyan billed over $200,000 for purportedly providing Botox services to patients in California when she was actually relaxing on the beach in Cabo:
The evidence also showed that when Mailyan realized federal investigators were closing in, she tried to hide her tracks by falsifying medical records and forging Medicare beneficiary signatures, including for a man who was in federal prison during the time Mailyan claimed to have provided treatment. Mailyan submitted these records to federal investigators, intending to throw them off her trail and make it appear as though she had seen patients she had not actually seen.
Mailyan used the money she stole to purchase luxury goods, including a $12,000 17th century crossbow and a $3,000 painting, depicted below.
In sentencing Mailyan, the Court commented that Mailyan’s fraud “was truly breathtaking in scope and shocking in its duration,” and that her actions were “almost unbelievable in their brazenness.” In addition to the prison sentence, the Court ordered the immediate forfeiture of over $16,029,742 worth of property seized from Mailyan, including real property, personal property, securities, and bank funds, effectively returning this taxpayer money to the United States. Mailyan was also ordered to pay $32,904,049.41 in restitution to Medicare, and the United States will vigorously pursue the return of these stolen funds.
