Former healthcare executive Semyon Nazarov has received a 76-month sentence for his role in the Forest Park Medical Center and NextHealth healthcare fraud schemes.
He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary of the Northern District of Ohio, who presided over the trials of nine of the Forest Park defendants last year. Seven were convicted, one was acquitted, and one defendant pleaded guilty.
“This defendant was a central figure in not one, but two significant healthcare fraud schemes,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox via release. “We cannot and will not allow health professionals to pervert an industry that should be solely focused on helping patients.”
In 2018, Nazarov pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in the NextHealth case and receive health care bribes and kickbacks with Forest Park. Nasarov said that Forest Park paid him and his business partner Andrew Hillman $190,000 to send patients to Forest Park or to surgeons who operated there. Phony invoices concealed the bribes, which were funneled through a shell entity.
At NextHealth, Nasarov said he and Hillman submitted fraudulent claims to insurance providers to receive reimbursements for prescriptions that weren’t necessary. Other fraudulent claims were for misbranded, non-FDA approved drugs, and prescriptions for physicians who were also receiving kickbacks while they claimed they were charging co-pays to patients.
Hillman was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison in December of last year for his role in the scheme.
