LI Doctor Sentenced For Role In $30 Million Fraud Scheme

A Long Island doctor was sentenced to a year in prison on Tuesday for his role in a $30 million scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.

Ewald J. Antoine, 67, of Valley Stream, was sentenced to a year behind bars after he pleaded guilty in January to his role in the conspiracy. He posed as the owner of two medical clinics, which were actually owned by a businessman, and claimed that he had examined and treated hundreds of patients.

“The Medicare and Medicaid programs are intended to provide essential medical services to the elderly and the needy, not to enrich corrupt doctors and other fraudsters," said Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. "The real victims in this case are U.S. taxpayers and needy patients with legitimate medical needs. Today’s sentence sends a strong message that those who cheat Medicare and Medicaid, including physicians who abuse their licenses and professional oaths, will be held accountable.”

Between 2007 and 2013, prosecutors say that Aleksandr Burman owned and operated six medical clinics in Brooklyn that fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid approximately $30 million for medical services and supplies that were not provided.

Under New York State law, medical clinics must be owned and operated by a medical professional. To circumvent this requirement, Burman, who was not a medical professional, hired doctors to pose as the owners of each of the clinics. Antoine was one of those doctors, agreeing to sign a variety of fraudulent documents that falsely represented to banks, Medicare, Medicaid and others that he was the sole owner of Sunlight Medical and Psychiatric Services, P.C., and Coney Island Medical Services, P.C., two of the six clinics.

Antoine and his co-conspirators also helped prepare false medical records to support fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid. He signed medical charts falsely stating that he had examined patients, and wrote prescriptions and referrals for medically unnecessary and/or non-existent tests and supplies.

In addition to his prison sentence, Antoine was ordered to pay restitution of $1,825,544 and to forfeit $269,412 in ill-gotten gains.

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