Feds Charge Former Bay Area Resident With $90 Million in Health Care Fraud

A 38-year-old Azerbaijani who had lived in the Bay Area used a complex health care fraud scheme to steal more than $90 million in government funds, federal prosecutors said Friday.

A federal jury handed down an indictment against Anar Rustamov, an Azerbaijani citizen who prosecutors said entered the U.S. illegally and helped orchestrate a scheme that involved filing thousands of false claims for medical equipment with the Medicare Advantage program. He is charged with 14 counts of aiding and abetting health care fraud and money laundering

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Prosecutors believe that over nine months, Rustamov submitted claims through an organization he created called Dublin Helping Hand, seeking reimbursement for medical equipment such as blood glucose monitors and orthotic braces “that was not provided, not needed by patients, and not authorized by a medical provider,” and that the patients named in the claims Rustamov and his accomplices submitted didn’t know about his conduct.

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