Southern Brooklyn health care scammer pleads guilty to $38M scheme

November 16, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Maksim Vernik pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering at Brooklyn’s federal court on Thursday. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

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A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty to money laundering at Brooklyn’s federal court on Thursday as part of a Medicare and Medicaid scheme that cost taxpayers $38 million of unnecessary medical services.

Maksim Vernik appeared in court as one of five men charged with money laundering and defrauding the U.S. in their scheme based out of clinics in Sheepshead Bay, Midwood and Gravesend.

Vernik leaned forward in his chair and sped through a statement of guilt that detailed the illegal activity.

The five are charged with bringing in customers to physical therapy centers for unnecessary treatments that were billed to Medicaid and Medicare, prosecutors said.

Vernik confessed before Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon that the scheme used a series of shell companies to disguise their activities.

The four clinics submitted a total of $86 million in claims, of which they received $38 million from federal programs before the scam ended, according to court documents.

The clinics involved were Ideal Health at 2263 E 15th St. and 2365 E 13th St. in Sheepshead Bay; Handz On at 729 E 13th St. in Midwood; Bensonhurst Mega Medical Care at 2761 Bath Ave. in Gravesend; and Prime Care on the Bay at 1711 Sheepshead Bay Road in Sheepshead Bay.

The remaining defendants, Aleksandr Pikus, Mark Tsyvin, Denis Satyr and Malvina Yablonskaya, all have cases pending, with Yablonskaya awaiting a Dec. 14 sentencing after a previously made guilty plea.

Vernik faces a maximum 20 years in prison with more than $2 million in restitution and $135,481 forfeiture when he is sentenced before Judge Sterling Johnson on March 1, 2018.

Sentencing guidelines put his more probable sentence up to 6 1/2 years in prison and he could be excluded from all federal health benefit programs, prosecutors said.

Vernik is currently out on bond.