$45M Botox Scheme; Man Accused of Slamming Nurse’s Head Into Wall; Doc’s Hit-and-Run

Violetta Mailyan, DO, of California, was convicted for her role in a $45 million scheme to defraud Medicare by billing for Botox injections that were never provided or that patients didn’t need. Federal prosecutors said Mailyan used the money to buy a 17th-century crossbow, an expensive painting, and a Cybertruck, among other items.

A man in Tennessee was charged for allegedly grabbing a nurse and slamming her head into a wall as she tried to give him his medication. (WSMV)

Pascal Ngongmon, MD, of Virginia, has been accused of sexually assaulting a patient at a sleep and weight-loss clinic. (WJLA)

A Utah pediatric nurse was sentenced to 210 days in prison and 2 years of probation after admitting to having more than 10 images of child sexual abuse material on his phone. (ABC4)

Oregon emergency physician Kenneth Kolarsky, MD, was sentenced to more than a year in prison for fatally striking a pedestrian and then fleeing the scene. (People)

A nurse in Texas has been accused of choking and assaulting a 10-year-old patient at a mental health facility. (KXAN via Yahoo News)

Connecticut orthopedists Christopher Betz, DO, and Scott Kissell, MD, were each fined $10,000 by the state’s medical board for allegedly allowing unlicensed staff to do laser treatments at a business they had recently launched. (CT Insider via Yahoo News)

The owner of two California medical companies pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1 million in COVID relief funds, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

Takeda has agreed to pay $13.6 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to healthcare professionals in order to boost prescriptions for its antidepressant vortioxetine (Trintellix), the DOJ said.

The DOJ also touted two other victories against healthcare fraud schemes: one was a conviction against the owner of a healthcare software company for bilking Medicare and other federal payers out of more than $1 billion, and the other sentenced a leader of a Moscow-based criminal organization to 10 years in prison for his role in a $2 billion fraudulent prescription scheme.