Federal agencies continue to uncover Covid-19 fraud years after the pandemic, and recent convictions show a government employee, a college football player, and pharmacy owners all were able to fraudulently obtain pandemic relief funds.
In the latest court action, two pharmacy owners were sentenced June 24 for their role in obtaining $18 million after submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and laundering the proceeds, including during the pandemic, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Peter Khaim, 44, of Forest Hills, N.Y., was sentenced to eight years in prison and his brother, Arkadiy Khamiov, 41, of Forest Hills, was sentenced to six years in prison. Both pleaded guilty in 2022.
The DOJ said the money laundering scheme involved 16 New York-area pharmacies the brothers and others owned. They used COVID-19-related “emergency override” billing codes to submit fraudulent claims for the expensive cancer medications Targretin Gel 1% and Panretin Gel 0.1%. These gels were not prescribed by physicians or dispensed to patients, and they claimed they were dispensed during the pandemic when some pharmacies were closed.
Mr. Khaim and Mr. Khaimov and co-conspirators then funneled the money through several shell companies and most of it was sent to companies in China and individuals in Uzbekistan. They also sent money to themselves or relatives and used it to buy real estate or luxury items.
Another recent COVID-19 fraud case involved a former college football player who pleaded guilty on June 17 for applying for more than $1 million in pandemic unemployment benefits and receiving more than $280,000.
Abdul-Malik McClain, 24, was a linebacker for the University of Southern California when he orchestrated a scheme that fraudulently sought pandemic unemployment benefits.
Mr. McClain filed fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program while he was a member of the USC football team. He also helped other players file fraudulent claims.
The claims Mr. McClain filed contained false information about the players’ prior employment, pandemic-related job losses and their supposed job-seeking efforts in California.
Mr. McClain faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison when he appears for his sentencing hearing on Sept. 16.
A Portland man was also sentenced on June 17 for his role in stealing pandemic funds slated to help small businesses during the pandemic. Aside from COVID-relief fraud, he also distributed counterfeit Oxycodone pills containing fentanyl in and around the city, according to the DOJ.
Yuriy Viktorovich Vasilchuk, 33, was sentenced to 49 months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release and ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Association.
Ms. Eckel allegedly applied for the PPP loans by claiming she was a sole proprietor and had $104,9000 in gross income from her business.
Last week, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) issued its Semiannual Report to Congress which showed over 783 pandemic-related investigations, involving approximately 10,000 individuals, with an estimated $2 billion in potential fraud loss from Oct. 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024
The PRAC, which is due to sunset in 15 months, did not respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
Mr. Horowitz said he hopes Congress will maintain the “valuable fraud-fighting tools” of its data analytics center and use it beyond pandemic relief funds.
“The insights highlighted in this report are proof that retaining the model we’ve created for conducting effective oversight will strengthen federal program integrity, safeguard taxpayer dollars, and ensure federal spending reaches those it is intended to help – not only in a crisis, but every day,” Mr. Horowitz said.
