DOWNTOWN – CALIFORNIA MAN Anthony Santamaria, 33, was sentenced on Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court to 10 years in prison and a forfeiture of $3.2 million over his role in a $2 billion health care fraud conspiracy, Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced in a statement.
Santamaria is one of seven convicted in the scheme. Co-defendants Hershel Tsikman, 33, and Hafizullah Ebady, 48, earlier this month got 10 and 8 years, respectively. Ebady will also forfeit $1.8 million, while all three must pay restitution.
Another person, Dela Saidazim, was sentenced to time served, while three more, David Bishoff, Brycen Millett and Joshua Alegria, are awaiting sentencing. An eighth person, alleged ringleader Brian Sutton, remains at large.
Between 2017 and 2022, the conspirators billed over $1.97 in fake prescriptions, costing insurers over $758 million. The defendants used aliases, funneled the money through shell companies, and moved overseas to Russia in an effort to keep the scheme hidden.
Call centers, overseen by Millett first in Utah and then Russia, contacted beneficiaries to offer medications at no cost and without exams. No matter the answer, prescriptions were generated, and then forwarded to unaware doctors recruited by Saizadim. The doctors were told these were written by nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants after telemedicine visits. More false prescriptions were then generated using the doctors’ identities.
Dozens of pharmacies, in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, and elsewhere, were purchased and managed by Ebady, while Bishoff coordinated their logistics. Teams of workers managed by Santamaria submitted reimbursement requests via the pharmacies for the fake prescriptions. Tsikman coordinated the laundering of money through these pharmacies, wiring millions of dollars internationally.
Sutton has not been convicted of a crime yet, and is believed to be residing in Moscow.
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