Nurse Practitioner With Russian Ties Pleads Guilty in Extensive Fraud Case

Sarasota, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) – A registered nurse and nurse practitioner with quite a long history of legal issues has now pleaded guilty in a $4.37 million fraud case in Rhode Island, according to a U.S Department Of Justice news release.

Alexander A. Istomin, age 56, pleaded guilty last week to eleven counts that included healthcare fraud, mail fraud, and aggravated identify theft, as well as distribution of misbranded drugs across state lines. Istomin has agreed to forfeit the $4.37 million in ill-gotten gains, and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 26, 2023.

Arrested in August of last year in Florida, Istomin admitted that starting in 2014 he submitted claims across his offices in Rhode Island, New York, and Florida for services that were never actually performed. In fact, in some cases the patients were out of the country at the time of billed visits. Istomin himself was frequently either in another state or another country, most often Russia, when these visits were supposed to have occurred. Additionally, Istomin billed for services under a medical office that did not exist.

In addition to billing for services that never occurred, Istomin admitted to waiving copayments for some Medicare patients in an attempt to keep the patients from reporting his fraudulent billing.

In yet another scheme, Istomin would use patient’s names and information to get prescriptions filled at area pharmacies. He would have the drugs delivered to him and then distribute them to people other than the patients they were ordered for.

According to court documents, at the time of his arrest investigators found multiple passports and marriage licenses, and strong ties to business in Russia. Istomin often presented himself as an internal medicine physician instead of a nurse practitioner.  While it doesn’t appear he was licensed as a physician here in the U.S., he received a medical degree from St. Petersburg Medical School in Russia and could practice medicine as a physician there.

In 2012, CMS revoked Istomin’s Medicare billing privileges as a nurse practitioner for not maintaining an operational practice location, effective 2008. The investigation was initiated when Istomin submitted enrollment paperwork to add locations to his Medicare record. When integrity contractors attempted to verify validity of the paperwork and locations, Istomin initially refused to provide information over the phone or set up an on sight meeting. Ultimately, contractors learned that the location was his private condominium.

According to an April 2016 report from the NY Post, Istomin was pulled over after being observed driving erratically. Upon investigation, the officer found that he was driving on a suspended license, at which point they took him into custody. When officers searched the car, they found a gun with ammunition and a gravity knife. In that case he was charged with criminal contempt for violating a protection order that barred him from carrying weapons.

Share This Article: