Medicaid fraud ringleader gets 5 years in prison
A 47-year-old Kirkland man was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $1.7 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit health-care fraud, a sentence federal prosecutors say is the longest for the crime ever handed down in Western Washington.
The government said Alexander Milman, who owned the A-Z Pharmacy with stores in Kent, Bellevue and Tacoma, continued to file false health claims even after he knew he was under investigation. He also was the behind-the-scenes owner of Lakeshore Pharmacy in Kirkland.
Milman was the ringleader of a group that included his wife, Alexandria, and two men, Oleg Ordinartsev and Vladimir Mitkovetski, who all pleaded guilty to charges ranging from money laundering to conspiracy.
Judge James Robart said during Milman’s sentencing in U.S. District Court in Seattle that Milman ran a “sophisticated” scheme that involved false billing of Medicaid claims for customers he lured to his pharmacy with free gifts. Milman and his co-conspirators used information from the customers to create bogus accounts that were used to bill Medicaid for services that were never delivered, according to federal prosecutors.
When Medicaid suspended the Milmans’ ability to bill Medicaid in November 2004, they entered into a secret deal with Ordinartsev and Mitkovetski to operate the Lakeshore Pharmacy. The men, prosecutors say, hid Milman’s ownership of that store.
Ordinartsev, Mitkovetski and Alexandria Milman cooperated with the government’s investigation. The details of their cooperation, however, were sealed by the court. They will be sentenced Feb. 4.
The $1.7 million in restitution Milman was ordered to pay is about equal to the amount investigators determined was defrauded from the government. To pay it, Milman forfeited several bank accounts, three pieces of property - including his Kirkland home, valued at more than $1 million - and jewelry, including a Rolex watch, according to court documents.
Defense attorney Angelo Calfo wrote in a sentencing brief that Milman has taken responsibility for his crimes.
However, prosecutors argued that he continued to attempt to secretly operate a pharmacy even after his Medicaid privileges had been suspended and he knew he was under investigation.
In imposing the sentence - which Milman had agreed to - Robart called him a “person who was deeply involved in a fraud that does not speak well of his underlying character.”
Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com