A 38-year-old Azerbaijani who had lived in the Bay Area used a complex health care fraud scheme to steal more than $90 million in government funds, federal prosecutors said Friday.
A federal jury handed down an indictment against Anar Rustamov, an Azerbaijani citizen who prosecutors said entered the U.S. illegally and helped orchestrate a scheme that involved filing thousands of false claims for medical equipment with the Medicare Advantage program. He is charged with 14 counts of aiding and abetting health care fraud and money laundering
Rustamov, formerly of Sunnyvale, remains at large, authorities said. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each felony.
U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian said the prosecution was an example of the type of conduct the Trump administration wanted to target when it declared a “War on Fraud.”
“Anyone who believes they can make easy money by defrauding such programs should know that we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to identify, investigate, and prosecute such fraud and abuse,” Missakian said in a news release announcing the indictment.
Prosecutors believe that over nine months, Rustamov submitted claims through an organization he created called Dublin Helping Hand, seeking reimbursement for medical equipment such as blood glucose monitors and orthotic braces “that was not provided, not needed by patients, and not authorized by a medical provider,” and that the patients named in the claims Rustamov and his accomplices submitted didn’t know about his conduct.
“This case alleges a calculated scheme to exploit a critical health care program for personal gain, attempting to siphon tens of millions of dollars through thousands of fraudulent claims for medical equipment, ” said Matt Cobo, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco field office. “The FBI and our partners will continue to aggressively pursue individuals who attempt to defraud these vital programs and hold them accountable.”