By Forum Staff
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, recently announced the guilty pleas of Nerik Ilyayev and Mukhiddin Kadirov for their respective roles in HIV medication fraud, no-fault automobile insurance fraud, and money laundering schemes totaling over $6 million. Ilyayev pled guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud for using two different pharmacies to defraud Medicare and Medicaid in connection with HIV medication claims and to defraud no-fault automobile insurance providers in connection with other medication claims. Kadirov laundered several million dollars in fraud proceeds in connection with the HIV fraud scheme.
According to the Complaint, Information, and statements made in open court:
From approximately February 2021 through March 2022, Ilyayev owned and operated a pharmacy in Manhattan (“Pharmacy-1”). Ilyayev used Pharmacy-1 to pay illegal kickbacks to low-income HIV patients to recruit them to fill prescriptions for expensive HIV medications at Pharmacy-1 and to obtain HIV medications from unlawful sources. Ilyayev, on behalf of Pharmacy-1, then submitted fraudulent insurance claims to Medicare and Medicaid to cover the cost of the HIV medications. In order to conceal his role in the fraud scheme, Ilyayev used the identity of another person (“Individual-1”) and pretended to be Individual-1 to own and operate Pharmacy-1 using Individual-1’s identity. Medicare and Medicaid collectively paid approximately $5.2 million in fraudulent claims for HIV medications to Pharmacy-1.
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Nerik Ilyayev and Mukhiddin Kadirov admitted to their respective roles in HIV medication fraud, no-fault automobile insurance fraud, and money laundering schemes totaling over $6 million.
After shutting down Pharmacy-1, Ilyayev took control of another pharmacy in Queens(“Pharmacy-2”). Again, to conceal his role in the fraud, Ilyayev used the identity of another person (“Individual-3”) and pretended to be Individual-3 to own and operate Pharmacy-2. Pharmacy-2 submitted fraudulent insurance claims to no-fault automobile insurance providers. Pharmacy-2 defrauded the no-fault automobile insurance providers of approximately $1.2 million. In addition, Pharmacy-2 unlawfully sold pharmaceuticals to other pharmacies that Ilyayev had obtained from illegitimate sources.
Kadirov participated in a money laundering network that primarily launders healthcare fraud proceeds (the “Money Laundering Network”) that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) has been investigating since approximately 2020. Members of the Money Laundering Network typically deposit checks from healthcare companies that represent healthcare fraud proceeds into New York-based bank accounts held by shell companies. The shell companies often purport to be wholesale companies and use terms like “wholesale” in the company name to make the check deposits from the healthcare companies appear less suspicious to banks and law enforcement. The conspirators controlling the shell companies collect cash typically from U.S.-based individuals who want to remit funds, often to Uzbekistan, through unlicensed channels.
