A.G. Announces Indictment Of Brooklyn Dentist For Allegedly Billing Medicaid For Dental Work Performed By Unlicensed Individuals

Joseph Shyknevsky Is Alleged To Have Hired At Least Four Unlicensed Individuals To Act As Dentists

  Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the indictment, arrest, and arraignment of Joseph Shyknevsky, 46, of Brooklyn, and four other individuals on charges related to an alleged scheme to defraud Medicaid. It is charged that Shyknevsky, a licensed dentist, hired individuals with no dental license, allowed them to perform dental work on Medicaid recipients, and billed the State for the dental work performed by those unlicensed individuals.

“Exploiting Medicaid by using unlicensed medical professionals not only drains the system of resources, it endangers the well-being of New Yorkers,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “New York has strong licensing requirements for healthcare, and those who think they can skirt these important safety rules will be held accountable.”

Prosecutors allege that, relying on the truth of Shynknevsky’s claims, Medicaid, either directly or through Managed Care providers, paid the Shyknevsky over $48,000 for dental work performed upon 110 Medicaid recipients by individuals who did not possess a license to practice dentistry.  A Kings County grand jury returned an indictment against Shyknevsky; his corporation, JS Atlantic Dental PC; and four unlicensed individuals whom Shyknevsky hired to practice dentistry:

• Ilya Zolotar, 50, of Staten Island;
• Konstantin Shtrambrand, 46, of Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania;
• Sergi Tolokolnikov, 57, of Staten Island; and
• Valerian Kverenchkhiladze, 43, of Brooklyn. 

Zolotar, Shtrambrand and Tolokolnikov were previously arrested by the Attorney General’s office in 2014 for allegedly performing complicated dental procedures on patients, including filing and root canals, without a proper license. The Attorney General’s Office captured some of these procedures on video surveillance.  The investigation into the alleged unlawful billing remained ongoing, which led to the indictment of Shyknevsky and his employees.

The Grand Jury charged each defendant with Healthcare Fraud in the Third Degree, a class “D” felony.  The indictment also charges Shyknevsky, his company J.S. Atlantic Dental P.C., Zolotar, and Shtrambrand with other related charges including Unauthorized Practice a Profession (Dentistry), Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree; and Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, all of which are class “E” felonies.  The defendants pleaded not guilty when arraigned before Justice Suzanne Mondo of the New York State Supreme Court, Kings County and were released on their own recognizance.  If convicted, each defendant faces up to seven years’ incarceration. 

The Attorney General thanks Fidelis Care, DentaQuest, and United Healthcare of New York for the assistance they provided during the investigation.

The Attorney General also thanks the US Department of Health And Human Services—Office of the Inspector General for referring the investigation to our office.

The charges against the defendant are allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

FORMER RIKERS ISLAND PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANT INDICTED FOR SEXUAL ABUSE, RAPE AND RELATED CRIMES AGAINST INMATES

Defendant Offered Fast Food And Other Goods In Exchange For Sex Acts

  Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a former physician’s assistant employed by Corizon Health to work in a Rikers Island jail has been indicted on 43 counts of Rape, Sexual Abuse and related crimes for sexual acts allegedly committed against four inmates spanning more than a year. 

  District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant allegedly used his position of trust to sexually abuse female inmates who came to him seeking medical attention. We will prosecute any staff member who commits crimes against inmates in our push to stem corruption and fear in our jails.” 

  Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said, “This is the second arrest from DOI’s intensive investigation into sexual assault at Department of Correction facilities. As charged, this defendant exploited his position as a medical professional, soliciting sexual favors from his inmate patients in exchange for providing contraband. Our investigations into sexual assault at DOC facilities are continuing.” 

  District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Sidney Wilson, 60, of 6506 Avenue N, Brooklyn, was arraigned today before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio. Bail was set at $7,500 and he is due back on July 18,2017. He was indicted on two counts of third degree Rape, two counts of third-degree Criminal Sexual Act, 12 counts of second-degree Sexual Abuse, 12 counts of third-degree Sexual Abuse, 13 counts of Official Misconduct, Forcible Touching and second-degree Promoting Prison Contraband. He faces up to four years in prison for each top charge.

  According to the investigation by DOI, between October 2013 and December 2014, Wilson exchanged items such as gum, socks and fast food for sexual acts from four female inmates housed at the Rose M. Singer Center. A person is incapable of consent to sexual acts if he or she is in the custody of a correctional facility. Wilson resigned from his job in 2015, unrelated to this case.

  The investigation was conducted by DOI’s Inspector General for DOC, under the supervision of Inspector General Jennifer Sculco, Associate Commissioner Paul Cronin, Deputy Commissioner/Chief of Investigations Michael Carroll and First Deputy Commissioner Lesley Brovner.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.

This Week at KRVC

Mark your Calendars for Two Events  this Week & Other Ones this Spring Coming Up Later this Spring: krvcdc.org/news krvcdc.org/events Also check out our community calendar! www.krvcdc.org

Ridgewood Savings Bank and the Bronx Chamber of Commerce invite you to attend a Free Small Business Financial Workshop

Bronx Council for Environmental Quality - Please ATTEND - Losing Public Parks - Tues 4.25

  Did you know that the City is proposing to use public parkland for private gain?

They want to give the people’s parkland to a private entity for a large mixed use complex for housing and commerce.

 

Come out Tuesday, April 25^th, 2017 

to share your concern and opinions!

Bronx Community Board 4 Public Hearing

Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Time: 6 pm – please, arrive early

Bronx Museum of the Arts.

1040 Grand Concourse (corner of 165^th St)

Bronx, NY 10456

Note: Please, arrive early as you have to sign in. Be prepared, you only have 2 minutes, bring a written statement.  Ask the Community Board to please vote against using waterfront parkland for housing and economic development.

 

Here are flyers in English and Spanish to share with your friends and neighbors:  http://www.bceq.org/2017/04/23/using-parkland-to-build-housing-only-in-the-bronx/

In addition to emails and phone calls, here is the beginning of some citywide news: http://sohojournal.com/content/Losing-Public-Parks

 

NEW SUNY CHANCELLOR CALLED ON TO SUPPORT DIVERSITY ISSUES

Statement from Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, Chair of the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force on the selection of Kristina Johnson to be the next Chancellor of the State University of New York

“On behalf of the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, I welcome Dr. Kristina M. Johnson to New York and wish her tremendous success in her new capacity as Chancellor of the State University of New York.  For over a decade, the Task Force has worked directly with SUNY chancellors, its Board of Directors and top staff to correct decades of neglect and disinterest in issues of diversity, minority student success, and inclusion. There are now over 123,000 minority students in SUNY and its 64 campuses are experiencing increased growth in minority student enrollment that will become the norm.

This collaboration has yielded considerable results which include:

·         the creation of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion;

·         the creation and adoption of the most ambitious and comprehensive diversity policy of any public college system;

·         the creation of the Hispanic Leadership Institute to address the absolute absence of Latinos in executive level positons on any of its 64 campuses;

·         co-hosting the Latino Leadership in Higher Education Summit;

·         the naming of the first Latino to a post of Vice Chancellor;

·         increased funding for the minority graduate fellowship program; and

·         a focus on improving the ranks of minority faculty and staff throughout the system.

We are grateful to Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, Board Chairman Carl McCall, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Dr. Alexander N. Cartwright and Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Carlos Medina for the strong leadership they have exhibited in embracing and delivering on issues that spell success for our communities.

The SUNY Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has become a national model of best practices and has received national awards for its groundbreaking work. In addition, the recently adopted diversity policies by the Board of Trustees to improve inclusion and address the lack of minority faculty and professional staff are just now beginning to be fully implemented.

Unequivocal support for the full and forceful implementation of the adopted diversity policies, increased attention to the financial resources needed by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and expanding the capacity of the newly created Hispanic Leadership Institute are actions we look forward to seeing from Dr. Johnson.

The Task Force stands here as a resource and a partner in SUNY’s work to showcase the strength that diversity brings to academia, student success and our society as a whole. We look forward to working with the new chancellor on all these fronts.”

Bronx Borough President - Bronx Israel Independence Day Festival

MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES 3-K FOR ALL

City launches plan to bring free, full-day, high-quality early childhood education to every three-year-old, building on success of Pre-K for All

  Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced 3-K for All, the most ambitious effort in U.S. history to provide universal, free, full-day, high-quality early childhood education for every three-year-old child regardless of family income. 3-K for All will build on the success of Pre-K for All – through which the City has more than tripled the number of four-year-olds enrolled in free, full-day, high-quality Pre-K – and is part of a broader effort to create a continuum of high-quality early care and education programs for New York City children from birth to five years old. Research has found every dollar invested in high-quality early education saves taxpayers as much as $13 long-term.

New York City is starting the path to 3-K for All for fall of 2017, aiming to serve over 11,000 three-year-olds in new and enhanced free, full-day, high-quality seats. This includes the first year of a two-year expansion to create hundreds of new, free, full-day, high-quality seats in District 7 in the South Bronx and District 23 in Brownsville. By fall of 2018, we will have a seat for every three-year-old living in those districts that wants one, and project we will serve 1,800 children in those two districts – triple the number enrolled today. At the same time, we will help families enroll in existing seats for 3-year-olds in New York City and provide additional support and enhance quality for over 11,000 three-year-olds currently enrolled in those will also strengthen existing programs serving children from six-weeks-old through three-years-old.

3-K for All is part of the Mayor’s Equity and Excellence for All agenda, which aims to ensure that by 2026, 80 percent of students graduate high school on time and two-thirds of graduates are college ready. At the completion of the financial plan FY 2021, this effort will cost a total of $177 million.

“The research is clear – investment in early childhood education reaps benefits for students, families and communities for years to come. Using the successful model we developed for Pre-K for All, we are doubling down with free, full-day, high-quality 3-K for All for our three-year-olds. This extra year of education will provide our children with a level of academic and social development that they cannot get later on, while at the same time, alleviating some of the strain New York City’s working families face today,” said Mayor de Blasio.

“As a lifelong educator, I understand just how much and how fast our youngest children can learn – a level of learning that you can’t make up later on. In free, full-day, high-quality 3-K, our students will build their vocabulary, a love of learning, and start to develop the social and behavioral habits they need to succeed in pre-K and kindergarten. It’s an essential step in building Equity and Excellence for All across the five boroughs, and we are hitting the ground running with the lessons that we’ve learned from the Pre-K for All expansion,” said Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña.

Like Pre-K for All, 3-K for All will be a unified system of DOE district schools and NYC Early Education Centers – community-based organizations experienced in providing high-quality early childhood education and care. Like Pre-K for All, the DOE will use data to provide differentiated support to all 3-K for All programs with instructional coaches and social workers to support high quality instruction. The City’s Pre-K for All outreach team, which helped triple the number of four-year-olds enrolled in free, full-day, high-quality pre-K, will also reach out to families in their own communities and in the language they speak to help them enroll in 3-K for All. 

There is extensive research supporting the transformative value of free, full-day, high-quality 3-K, including the following:

·      Several studies have found that students who attend two years of preschool compared to one are better prepared for kindergarten, and that they perform significantly higher on academic and social outcome measures.

·      A study of the two-year Abbott Preschool Program in New Jersey found persistent gains in language arts and literacy, mathematics, and science through 4th and 5th grade, with larger test score gains for children who participated in two years of preschool. In addition, Abbott Preschool Program participation was linked to lower grade retention rates and fewer children needing special education.

·      A study of Head Start found that families of children who attended for two years were more likely to engage in recreational activities together that supported child development, and were likely to spend more hours reading together at home.

·      A Chicago study found that children who attended two years of public preschool were significantly less likely to receive special education services, to be abused or neglected, or to commit crimes in adulthood.

According to the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity, delivering 3-K for All to every three-year-old child in NYC will provide every eligible family an extra year of high-quality education, saving them an annual cost of over $10,000. Approximately one in four families who will take advantage of 3-K for All are likely to benefit from being able to work an average of four more hours per week, resulting in an estimated $2,400 in additional income per family.

As part of its commitment to free, full-day, high-quality 3-K for All, the City will also provide additional support to the public early childhood center programs currently serving  over 11,000 three-year-olds across the City, by bringing those classrooms into the same set of supports for teacher training, family engagement, and social work support as Pre-K for All. The Pre-K for All outreach team will also assist programs in enrolling children. These programs are currently part of EarlyLearn – the contracted-care and education system managed by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) that includes Head Start centers, center-based childcare, and family childcare networks – and are available to families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

With support from ACS, Human Resources Administration (HRA), and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), and a planning process involving providers and early childhood care and education experts, these programs will shift to management by DOE as part of 3-K for All, enabling consistent high-quality standards under a single agency by the fall of 2018. This will also provide greater curricular alignment through second grade, a single contracting relationship for early childhood education providers, integrated data collection, and seamless connections between early childhood development and 3K-12 education. EarlyLearn programs serving children from six-weeks-old through three-years-old will also shift to management by DOE.