DME Owner Arrested in $17m Kickback Case

WASHINGTON (December 16, 2022)—A New York woman has been arrested for allegedly offering and paying illegal health care kickbacks and money laundering, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports. 

According to court documents, Alexandra Stchastlivtseva, 52, of New York, owned several durable medical equipment (DME) companies. Stchastlivtseva allegedly offered and paid kickbacks and bribes to several purported telemedicine companies and marketing companies in exchange for completed doctors’ orders of medically unnecessary orthotic braces and continuous glucose monitors for Medicare beneficiaries.

Stchastlivtseva and her co-conspirators allegedly concealed the fraud by entering into sham contracts and producing false invoices characterizing the kickbacks and bribes as payments for “marketing.” In total, Medicare paid more than $17.3 million based on false and fraudulent claims that Stchastlivtseva allegedly submitted and caused to be submitted to Medicare. Stchastlivtseva and others then laundered the proceeds of the kickback scheme.  

Stchastlivtseva is charged in an indictment filed in the District of New Jersey with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to offer and pay health care kickbacks, five counts of offering and paying health care kickbacks, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. She was scheduled for her initial court appearance Dec. 15. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and offer and pay health care kickbacks, 10 years in prison on each count of offering and paying health care kickbacks, and ten years in prison on the count of money laundering conspiracy. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI and the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services are investigating the case.