California Doctor Convicted of Medicare Fraud Scheme for Botox

A federal jury has convicted a California doctor on charges of wire fraud and obstruction for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting fraudulent claims for Botox injections. Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Glendale, was found guilty of nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of obstruction of a criminal investigation of a healthcare offense.

Mailyan owned and operated the Healthy Way Medical Center in Glendale. According to evidence presented at trial, she submitted more than $45 million in false claims to Medicare for Botox injections that were medically unnecessary, purely cosmetic, or never provided. The scheme was detected by a federal data analytics team that identified Mailyan as an extreme outlier in Medicare billing. Over a four-year period, she received more than $24 million from the program for Botox injections, approximately six times the amount received by the next highest group of providers, all of whom were neurologists.

Prosecutors detailed numerous instances of fraudulent billing. Mailyan submitted claims for injections on dates when she was traveling to destinations including Cabo San Lucas, Maui, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, and New...