By Anna Gustafson
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is attempting to reclaim millions of dollars he said the state spent on fraudulent billings by a Forest Hills family who allegedly paid Medicaid recipients, many of them from homeless shelters, to come into the dental offices they ran in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn, according to papers in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
David Ibragimov, 48; his son, Arthur Ibragimov; and his son-in-law, Mikhail Iskov, allegedly ran a series of Medicaid-billing dental mills in the three boroughs, including sites in Jamaica and Rego Park, where individuals were paid to come to and then received “sub-standard treatment,” according to the criminal complaint filed April 9 by the attorney general’s office. The three were not licensed dentists in New York, Cuomo said.
Jeffrey Rubin, the attorney representing the family, did not comment on the accusations.
Medicaid patients would receive about $10 to $15, or sometimes an MP-3 player, each time they would visit an office belonging to the Ibragimovs, the attorney general said. One dentist, who worked in one of the mills, reported witnessing patients being paid in cash, CD players and McDonald’s gift certificates, according to the complaint.
The state Medicaid program was allegedly billed for $7.2 million between January 2007 and March 2010 by the Ibragimovs and Iskov, the complaint said.
David Ibragimov, who was a dentist in Uzbekistan but not licensed to practice in New York, and the other two would then allegedly file Medicaid claims with the state and were able to qualify for millions of dollars, Cuomo said.
“This illegal scheme garnered millions of dollars and covered its trail with phony invoices, shell companies and street-hustling flyer boys,” Cuomo said in the complaint.
Flyer boys were individuals the Ibragimovs or Iskov would send out into the neighborhoods to find Medicaid patients who could visit the sites.
The Queens sites allegedly run by the Forest Hills family include Jamaica Family Gentle Dentistry P.C. at 165-10 Jamaica Ave., MB Globus at 165-10 Jamaica Ave. and BM Dental Lab Inc. at 98-51 65th Ave. in Rego Park.
More than 35 people worked at the dental clinics, Cuomo said.
Cuomo said his office is looking to reclaim millions from the family and noted the amount will be determined during a trial, for which the date has not yet been set.
Four of the dentists who worked in the clinics let investigators take a look into the different sites, and one dentist reportedly admitted to knowing that “flyer boys” would recruit destitute individuals in the area, including from homeless shelters, according to the papers.
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
