Three Members of International Criminal Organization Sentenced in $2 Billion Telemedicine Fraud Scheme

Three members of a Moscow-based international criminal organization have been sentenced for their roles in a massive telemedicine health care fraud scheme that generated nearly $2 billion in fraudulent prescription claims.

According to the DOJ, Anthony Santamaria was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to 10 years in prison. Co-defendants Hershel Tsikman and Hafizullah Ebady were sentenced earlier this month to 120 months and 97 months in prison, respectively. Santamaria was also ordered to forfeit $3.2 million, while Ebady was ordered to forfeit more than $1.8 million. Restitution will be determined later.  

The scheme allegedly operated from 2017 through 2022 and targeted private health care benefit programs. Prosecutors said the organization used call centers in Utah, Russia, and elsewhere to contact beneficiaries and offer medications without proper medical exams.

In many cases, beneficiaries allegedly never had real telemedicine visits, yet fraudulent prescriptions were generated under physicians’ names and National Provider Identifier numbers.  

The DOJ said the defendants acquired pharmacies across the United States, including in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan, and Alabama. Moscow-based billers then remotely submitted reimbursement requests through those pharmacies. Third-party billing records showed more than $1.97 billion in fraudulent prescriptions, with private insurers paying over $758 million.  

This case shows the same structural fraud signals that matter across health care enforcement: shell companies, straw owners, remote billing, identity misuse, NPI abuse, and weak gatekeeping around payment systems. For Find Corporate Waste, the lesson is simple: complex fraud often leaves a public-data trail before prosecutors ever announce charges.

Whether the target is private insurance fraud, Medicare billing abuse, or pandemic relief eligibility, the work begins by matching names, entities, addresses, program rules, and exclusion records.

Operation Clawback applies that same logic to pandemic-era health care relief by reviewing PRF/CARES recipients against exclusion and eligibility data, including OIG LEIE records and PRF eligibility conditions.