A.G. Underwood And Comptroller DiNapoli Announce Guilty Plea Of Queens Pharmacy Owner For $1.5 Million Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Owner of Value Pharmacy, Inc. Will Serve Jail Time and Pay $3 Million for Participating in a Kickback Scheme with a Former Nassau University Medical Center Cancer Care Center Employee and Defrauding Medicaid of $1.5 Million

   Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood and State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced that Arkady Goldin, 40, of Brooklyn, and Value Pharmacy, Inc. (“Value”) — a pharmacy formerly located in Corona, Queens before re-locating to its current location in Lynbrook, NY — entered felony guilty pleas in Supreme Court, Queens County admitting to defrauding the State’s Medicaid program out of $1.5 million. The case was investigated and prosecuted as part of the Attorney General and State Comptroller’s Joint Task Force on Public Integrity.

“We have zero tolerance for those who defraud the state’s Medicaid program,” said Attorney General Underwood. “We will continue to aggressively pursue all individuals who steal from Medicaid to enrich themselves at the expense of those who need the program for their fundamental health care.”

“Arkady Goldin billed Medicaid millions for cancer medications he never dispensed,” State Comptroller DiNapoli said. “Thanks to our partnership with the Attorney General’s Office, Goldin has been convicted, his corrupt pharmacy closed, and he and his partners will pay the state back for the $3 million total in stolen Medicaid funds.” 

Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron accepted Goldin’s guilty plea to Health Care Fraud in the Second Degree, a class C felony, and to violating the Social Services Law prohibition on the payment of kickbacks related to the State’s Medicaid program, a class E felony. The pharmacy entered a guilty plea to Grand Larceny in the First Degree, a class B felony. Goldin will be sentenced to six months incarceration, five years’ probation, and, along with Value, will be required to pay $1.5 million as restitution for money stolen from Medicaid. The defendants will also pay an additional $1.5 million in financial penalties, including a $10,000 fine that must be paid by the corporation. Goldin will also be required to perform 200 hours of community service. 

Goldin and Value’s pleas will also resolve a separate civil asset forfeiture and False Claims Act law suit filed by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Civil Enforcement Division (“MFCU”) in New York State Supreme Court, Queens County.

In papers filed in court, the State alleged that Goldin, an owner of Value, which formerly was located in Corona, Queens, had a kickback arrangement with a former employee of Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) who earlier in the investigation pleaded guilty to unlawfully accepting kickbacks related to Medicaid services. In exchange for steering expensive cancer prescriptions from NUMC to Value, Goldin paid the hospital employee a monthly cash referral fee and provided him with other items of value, including tickets to sporting events, an iPad, and free meals. State law strictly prohibits all medical providers, including pharmacies, from paying or offering to pay kickbacks to another person in return for the referral of medical services ultimately paid for by Medicaid. 

Additionally, as part of the scheme, the investigation uncovered that Value did not purchase sufficient amounts of medication from licensed New York State drug wholesalers that would have been necessary if Value legitimately dispensed prescriptions for which Value billed Medicaid. As a result of the unlawful scheme, Medicaid ultimately paid Value over $1.5 million for unlawful claims for medications.

Since 2011, the Attorney General and Comptroller have worked together to fight corruption through their Joint Task Force on Public Integrity. They have brought charges against dozens of individuals implicated in public corruption schemes around the state – resulting in the return of millions in restitution to taxpayers through these convictions.

Comptroller DiNapoli’s investigation was led by the Office of the State Comptroller (“OSC”) Division of Investigations, working with the OSC Division of State Government Accountability.