A California physician who cheated Medicare out of more than $45 million and spent the proceeds on luxury homes, expensive vehicles and rare collectibles has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, the Justice Department said Friday.
Violetta Mailyan, 45, was convicted in May by a Central District of California jury on nine wire-fraud charges and three counts of obstructing a criminal investigation into a health care offense. Prosecutors said she submitted fraudulent claims for Botox injections that were never administered.
Mailyan, who lives in Glendale, used the money to purchase five California properties and two Tesla vehicles, one of them a Cybertruck.
The case stands out as one of the most significant recent examples of Medicare fraud, as Vice President JD Vance leads a federal task force focused on combating such schemes.
The Justice Department previously said Mailyan held four properties in Surfside and Glendale with combined equity of roughly $7.3 million.
Her spending also included lavish collectibles, such as a 17th-century crossbow valued at $12,000 and a $3,000 painting depicting Ludwig I, Crown Prince of Bavaria.
Prosecutors said Mailyan owned and ran Healthy Way Medical Center, a clinic that advertised beauty and cosmetic treatments. The clinic billed Medicare for thousands of injections that were never performed, investigators said.
More than $19 million in claims involved injections allegedly administered on dates when the clinic was closed, according to the prosecution.
The fraudulent billing continued while Mailyan was traveling, with claims filed for treatments supposedly delivered in California as she vacationed in Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania and New York.
Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Glendale, received a 15-year federal prison sentence after her conviction on nine wire-fraud counts and three obstruction charges
A photo from Mailyan’s phone showed Cabo, Mexico, on a day she billed Medicare $34,560 for procedures she claimed had been performed in Glendale
Mailyan submitted more than $200,000 in claims for services she purportedly provided to California patients while she was actually vacationing on a beach in Cabo.
One image recovered from her phone showed a scenic view of the Mexican resort on the same day she billed Medicare $34,560 for services allegedly performed in Glendale.
Medicare covers Botox injections when they are medically necessary to treat documented chronic migraines.
According to prosecutors, however, Mailyan sought reimbursement for thousands of injections that were either never administered or were unrelated to migraine treatment.
Investigators said Mailyan later falsified medical records in an effort to conceal the scheme as scrutiny intensified.
She also forged the signatures of Medicare beneficiaries, including one man who was incarcerated at the time she claimed to have treated him.
Mailyan submitted the fabricated records to federal investigators to create the appearance that she had treated patients she never saw, prosecutors said.
The records were submitted after she received a grand jury subpoena demanding medical documentation, according to the government.
The date on which Mailyan will begin serving her sentence was not immediately available.
Prosecutors said Mailyan filed Medicare claims for injections allegedly given while she was traveling through Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, New York and Pennsylvania
The proceeds of the scheme helped Mailyan purchase two Tesla vehicles, including a Cybertruck
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Prosecutors described Mailyan as an “extreme outlier” among doctors receiving Medicare reimbursements for Botox treatments.
Her payments were six times greater than those received by the next-highest group of providers, all of whom were neurologists.
In addition to the prison term, Mailyan was ordered to forfeit more than $16 million in assets, including bank accounts, personal belongings, real estate and securities.
She must also pay approximately $32.9 million in restitution to Medicare.
Mailyan could have faced up to 20 years in prison for each wire-fraud count and as many as five years for each of the three obstruction charges.
The Justice Department said its prosecution reflects the administration’s broader effort to combat government fraud, including work by President Donald Trump’s anti-fraud task force.
Trump launched the task force in March and placed Vance in charge as part of an aggressive push to curb fraud across federal programs.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in October that a “Chinese mafia” could be coordinating Medicaid fraud through senior-care facilities.
Oz sent warning letters to senior centers in Flushing, Queens, amid a multi-agency federal investigation.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, he said his visits to Kent Senior Care and Evergreen Adult Day Care had been “suspicious” and suggested the alleged network could be paying people to help carry out the fraud.
New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state was undertaking a “massive effort to combat fraud and abuse” within Medicaid.
Mailyan spent some of the fraud proceeds on luxury collectibles, including a $12,000 17th-century crossbow and a $3,000 portrait of Ludwig I, Crown Prince of Bavaria
Last month, Trump announced a $25 million initiative designed to encourage the public to report suspected government fraud.
The White House said the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program would offer up to $30,000 to anyone whose tip leads to a fraud conviction or a significant federal enforcement action. The Justice Department will oversee the program.
Trump said the rewards would represent a 1% commission on the amount of fraud uncovered as a result of the information.
He also said he would determine how to distribute the money when multiple people claimed responsibility for the same tip.
The president further announced last month that more than 20 million seniors would receive one-time Medicare payments of $90.
The payments were intended to help eligible Medicare Part B beneficiaries pay their premiums.
Trump said the recipients had been overcharged during the Biden administration through fees used to operate HealthCare.gov, leaving the federal government with hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus funds.
“That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you!” Trump wrote in an accompanying letter, according to CBS News.
The Daily Mail contacted Mailyan’s attorneys, Mark Hardiman and Phillip Kanarsh, as well as the Justice Department, for comment.
