Doctor Indicted for Orchestrating $45M Botox Fraud Scheme Targeting Medicare

A federal grand jury in California returned a superseding indictment yesterday charging a doctor for allegedly submitting more than $45 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for Botox injections and for obstructing a criminal investigation by allegedly submitting falsified medical records in response to a grand jury subpoena. According to court documents, Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Los Angeles County, owned and operated Healthy Way Medical Center (Healthy Way), which allegedly billed Medicare for Botox injections that were medically unnecessary and never provided, including for injections on dates when Mailyan was traveling internationally, on dates when the Medicare beneficiary who supposedly received the services was traveling internationally, on dates when the Medicare beneficiary who supposedly received the services was in federal prison, and on dates when Healthy Way was closed. Mailyan is charged with nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of obstructing a criminal investigation of health care offenses. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each wire fraud count and five years in prison on each obstruction count.