When the CBS News Texas I‑Team returned to a small North Austin office tied to an alleged multimillion‑dollar Medicare billing scheme, two workers were inside placing what appeared to be medical billing records into large black trash bags.
They did not respond when asked whether someone instructed them to discard the documents. Weeks earlier, the same two employees told the I‑Team they had been hired to open mail and scan documents and were unaware of the fraud allegations or arrest of the man who ran the company.
That office belongs to Centurion Superior Medical LLC, one of two medical supply companies tied to Nika Machutadze, a Russian citizen accused of rapidly submitting high‑volume Medicare claims for items patients never ordered or received.
Just days after the I‑Team’s February report, the federal government imposed a six‑month nationwide moratorium blocking Medicare enrollments for most new medical supply companies — a freeze intended to prevent high‑risk suppliers from entering the system as oversight tightens. The moratorium does not affect companies already enrolled in Medicare.
The moratorium aims to flag companies like Centurion. Records show Machutadze took over Centurion in September 2025 and almost immediately began filing tens of thousands of claims with Medicare. In just a little more than a month, court records show Centurion filed nearly 79,000 claims, mostly for urinary catheters, billing roughly $134 million. While Medicare froze reimbursements, supplemental insurers did not. Investigators say money moved quickly through U.S. accounts and that at least $988,830 was wired to an account in Hong Kong.
A federal criminal complaint also tied Machutadze to a second company in Florida that submitted 1.64 million claims totaling $3.33 billion.
At a White House press conference in February announcing the nationwide freeze, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former TV host, said healthcare fraud and waste are costing the federal government nearly $100 billion a year and promised aggressive action.
“These self‑serving scoundrels, that’s what they are, who rob our federal and state health programs, have decided it is worth the risk,” Oz said. “We have to take these crimes seriously and treat them as seriously as if they were bank robberies.”
Medicare beneficiaries across several states first alerted the I‑Team to Centurion, reporting catheter charges on their Medicare statements that they never ordered or received. One Florida woman said she noticed the charges while reviewing her husband’s Medicare summary and asked, “What the hell is this?” Others in Tennessee said they had no doctor visits, no prescriptions, and no deliveries, yet payments still showed as processed.
Investigators say part of the financial damage stems from a long‑standing vulnerability: once Medicare initially processes a claim, supplemental “Medigap” insurers often pay their portion automatically, even if Medicare later suspends its payments.
Machutadze remains held without bond in Florida on felony money laundering charges. His attorney has declined to discuss the case publicly but says his client maintains his innocence.
The FBI declined to comment, citing an active investigation.
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