Marlboro, Morganville Pharmacists Arrested By Federal Prosecutors

MARLBORO, NJ — A pharmacist who lives in Marlboro and another who lives in Morganville were arrested this week and charged with being involved in a $99 million statewide drug scheme, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

The arrests were announced Monday, Sept. 16 by U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito: Alex Fleyshmakher, 33, of Morganville was arrested this past Monday morning and was scheduled to have his initial appearance this past Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Arpert in Trenton federal court.

Also charged were: Ruben Sevumyants, 36, of Marlboro; and Samuel "Sam" Khaimov, 47, and Yana Shtindler, 44, both of Glen Head, N.Y. (Long Island).

According to Carpenito's team of investigators, Khaimov, Sevumyants, Fleyshmakher and others paid bribes and kickbacks to doctors and doctors' employees to induce them to steer prescriptions to their company, Prime Aid Pharmacies.

The kickbacks included expensive meals and payments by cash, check and wire transfers, say the feds. Another method of bribery also involved paying an employee to work inside a doctor's office for the doctor's benefit, according to the release.

Prime Aid Pharmacies – now closed – operated as "specialty pharmacies" out of locations in New Jersey and the Bronx. The company processed expensive medications used to treat various conditions, including Hepatitis C, Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Fleyshmakher worked at Prime Aid Union City and was an owner of Prime Aid Bronx. Khaimov was an owner of Prime Aid Union City and the lead pharmacist of Prime Aid Bronx. Shtindler was Prime Aid Union City's administrator, and Sevumyants was its operations manager.

This alleged scheme started in 2009 and continued for the past ten years, say federal prosecutors. All four men were charged with conspiracy; Khaimov, Sevumyants and Shtindler were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

Prime Aid Union City – at the direction of Shtindler, Khaimov, and Sevumyants – also engaged in the fraudulent practice of billing health insurance providers for medications that were never provided to patients, according to the release from Carpenito's office.

While Prime Aid generally provided medications for initial prescriptions it received, it systematically billed for refills for those same medications without ever dispensing them to patients, according to the release.

From 2013 through 2017, Prime Aid Union City received over $65 million in reimbursement payments from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for medications the pharmacy not only failed to give patients, but never even ordered or had in stock, according to the release.

Managers conducted routine audits of Prime Aid and discovered its practice of billing but not dispensing medications. In response to these audits, Shtindler instructed Prime Aid employees to falsify records submitted to the managers, according to the release. Read the full release here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/four-people-charged-99-million-scheme-commit-health-care-fraud-and-wire-fraud-and-pay