Four arrested for conspiring to commit health care fraud, money laundering

Aliksandr Beketav, 53, Mikhail Shiforenko, 43, Alexsandr Voronov, 46, and Daniela Gozes-Wagner, 32, have been arrested following the return of a federal indictment alleging a health care fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson.

The two-count Indictment was returned Dec. 17, 2014, and unsealed following their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Stephen W. Smith this afternoon. They were temporarily ordered into custody pending a hearing set for Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, at 2 p.m.

Shiforenko, Voronov and Gozes-Wagner are all residents of Houston, while Beketav is from Calabasas, Calif.

The indictment alleges that from approximately 2007 through the present, the defendants conspired to falsely bill Medicare and Medicaid for numerous unnecessary medical tests. According to the indictment, they paid Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to visit so-called "testing facilities" run by the defendants in the Houston area. The defendants caused employees of the testing facilities to visit purportedly homebound beneficiaries (to whom the defendants gained access by way of collusive arrangements with home-health care agencies) in order to conduct diagnostic tests on the beneficiaries at their homes, according to the allegations. The defendants then allegedly caused Medicare and Medicaid to be billed for diagnostic tests that were not performed or were not medically necessary.