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Last Friday, October 25, the federal prosecutor's office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan announced the arrest of 49-year-old Arsene Lusher, who lives in New Jersey, who was taken to court on the same day, where Magistrate Gary Stein acquainted him with the charge of fraud, or rather, that from 2017 to 2021 Loosher defrauded more than 20 investors of more than $ 5 million, For which he faces 2 years in prison.
The ethnic origin of Arsène Luscher is not mentioned, but it is obvious, judging by his relatives Lyuba and Alexandra Lusher, as well as Eduard and Adam Glazarov, who are involved in the case. From the court documents, it is clear that Arsen is a native and, possibly, a citizen of Ukraine. He is not listed in the records of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and, therefore, was released on bail, although the prosecutor argued that Luscher, who used forged documents, could abscond. Magistrate Judge Stein dismissed these arguments.
"For several years", Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams said in a press release, "the defendant allegedly raised investor funds, claiming that he had an extremely profitable trucking business. This was not true, and the accused used this money in a classic financial pyramid, enriching himself along the way. When luck turned against him, the victims suffered losses of millions of dollars. Today's arrest serves as a stark reminder that the illusion of success, built on fraud and deception, will inevitably collapse". Similar opinions were expressed in slightly different words by the new head of the FBI, James Dennehy, and the head of the New York branch of the IRS, Thomas Fattorusso.
The accusation boils down to the fact that Luscher and a small group of trusted assistants, called "lieutenants" in the manner of the Italian mafia, received money from investors to purchase trucks for Lusher Trucking Inc, which allegedly belonged to Arsen, although such a company has existed since 1977, and its president, Frank Lasher, has no idea about his Ukrainian colleague. In reality, Arsène Luscher owned a small trucking company that made less than $300,000 a year working for just one large customer. A truck for such transportation costs about 45 thousand dollars, and an investment agreement drawn up and signed by both parties guaranteed the investor a profit of usually 30-40% of the invested amount in a year or two. Thus, the prosecution claims, Arsene Luscher received more than $ 40 million.
Mentioning in the press release that Luscher "used forged documents", Manhattan federal prosecutor Williams was referring to the fact that, according to the prosecution, "in December 2020, Luscher sent one of the victims an income tax return from one of the companies that he controlled and used to carry out his scheme. This alleged tax return was a forgery: the accountant who prepared it did not actually prepare it". The indictment also noted that in February 2021, Luscher changed the final profits in the accounts in an email sent by a bank employee to make it appear that Luscher's companies still had profits that did not actually exist. In particular, the bank employee indicated that one of Luscher's companies had a profit of $8,767 and 26 cents, and the other 320 dollars and 76 cents, and Luscher himself corrected these amounts by 1,228,767 dollars and 26 cents in one case and by 987,320 dollars and 76 cents in the other. In other words, in one case, he inflated his company's profits by 140 times, and in the other, by 3,078 times, and sent this phony to investors to keep them happy.
Arsene Luscher did not buy any trucks, and his pyramid scheme worked according to the classic "Ponzi" scheme, paying off old investors with the money of new ones and keeping the profits. With these profits, Luscher, as the prosecutor claimed in court on October 25, "played at the FanDuel Casino (on the Internet) and in Atlantic City", and when he was arrested, he turned out to be in possession of an expensive watch. At the beginning of 2021, his pyramid collapsed, leaving "more than 20 investors without more than $5 million", as already mentioned. To get two years in prison for such a scam can be considered a gift of fate and justice. For similar actions, New York investment banker Bernard Madoff received 150 years in prison in the same Manhattan court in June 2009 and died 12 years later in a North Carolina state prison at the age of 82. True, his pyramid scheme worked for more than 40 years, and almost 3 million deceived investors lost about $17.5 billion, almost 90% of which ($14.7 billion) was returned to the victims by the manager of the late Maddoff's assets.
In another noteworthy case, on October 24, in federal court for the Eastern District of New York State in Brooklyn, 45-year-old Hafizula (aka Hafiz) Ibadi, who lived in New Jersey, pleaded guilty to imprisonment for up to 10 years and confiscation of more than $1.8 million, as well as collective damages in the amount of more than $198 million. The case is being heard by Judge William Koontz, and in this case, Ibadi became the seventh defendant to plead guilty, and the eighth and main, 31-year-old US citizen Brian Michael Sutton (aka Mile Summers, Mike Miller and Ryan White) permanently lives in Moscow, is charged separately and is wanted. The same can be said about the 34-year-old "American Muscovite" Dela Saidazim (aka Delila, Gina Payne and Olivia Rothstein). The others are 32-year-old Joshua Manuel Alegria (aka Jayboy, Jackson Asher and Turk Molloy), 31-year-old Anthony Satamaria (aka "Big Guy", Ved Watts, Pablo Rodriguez "Rusty Rusty" and Bruce Peter), and 30-year-old Herschl Zickman (aka Andrew Miller and Linus) live in California, while 39-year-old David Bischoff (aka Bobby Fisher) and 33-year-old Brysen Millet (aka Brett Johnson and Tommy Witkinson) live in Utah.
According to the prosecution, the defendants, who are believed to be an organized criminal group, presented more than 50 pharmacies across the country, including the New York boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan and Alabama, fake prescriptions for drugs with a total value of more than $ 1,7 billion and received more than $ 500 million. "Under pseudonyms, through shell companies and front owners, and then moving their operations overseas and laundering millions of dollars through foreign countries," Brooklyn federal prosecutor Brion Peace said in a press release, "the defendants carried out a complex, multifaceted scheme, using points at call centers and remote billing teams to line pockets worth more than a billion dollars," U.S. Attorney Peace said. "Health care fraud haunts American businesses and increases the valuetreatment for everyone. Let these convictions serve as a message: We will work tirelessly to investigate and prosecute those who exploit American health plans, no matter where in the world they operate." The new head of the FBI's New York office, James Dannehy, agreed with the indignation of the Brooklyn prosecutor. "Call centers" are call centers for processing calls and requests via voice communication channels in the interests of the customer.
According to the prosecution, from 2017 to 2022, an American living in Russia, Sutton led accomplices in this scam. Utah-based call centers called customers of private health insurance companies and offered prescribed medications at virtually no cost and without a medical examination to determine whether they needed them. Other members of the criminal group hired doctors to check prescriptions written by nurses and assistants of doctors, allegedly after patient appointments via video link, although there were no such appointments. They also issued fake prescriptions in the name of doctors and under the numbers of NPI - the identifier of pharmacies.
Personally, their roles were distributed as follows. Alegria oversaw the development of special software and sent fake prescriptions to licensed doctors for approval. Bischoff coordinated the logistics for the operation of multidisciplinary pharmacies. Millet controlled call centers in Utah, as well as in Russia and other countries. Ibadi was in charge of procurement and managed the day-to-day operations of pharmacies. Saidazim hired licensed doctors and was Sutton's personal assistant. Santamaria trained a team of invoicers to enter data and send false requests to insurance companies for payouts.
Tsikman laundered the proceeds of fraud through shell companies and shell owners of such companies. Millions of dollars of illegal profit were laundered by the defendants abroad, and with the help of an encrypted Internet connection, acting from Moscow, they acquired dozens of pharmacies in the United States through "straw" intermediaries, through which fake prescriptions passed. Having familiarized yourself with this case, you are once again convinced that the ingenuity of the swindler, multiplied by cyber speeds, will move mountains, if, of course, it is not stopped.
The ethnic origin of Arsène Luscher is not mentioned, but it is obvious, judging by his relatives Lyuba and Alexandra Lusher, as well as Eduard and Adam Glazarov, who are involved in the case. From the court documents, it is clear that Arsen is a native and, possibly, a citizen of Ukraine. He is not listed in the records of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and, therefore, was released on bail, although the prosecutor argued that Luscher, who used forged documents, could abscond. Magistrate Judge Stein dismissed these arguments.
"For several years", Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams said in a press release, "the defendant allegedly raised investor funds, claiming that he had an extremely profitable trucking business. This was not true, and the accused used this money in a classic financial pyramid, enriching himself along the way. When luck turned against him, the victims suffered losses of millions of dollars. Today's arrest serves as a stark reminder that the illusion of success, built on fraud and deception, will inevitably collapse". Similar opinions were expressed in slightly different words by the new head of the FBI, James Dennehy, and the head of the New York branch of the IRS, Thomas Fattorusso.
The accusation boils down to the fact that Luscher and a small group of trusted assistants, called "lieutenants" in the manner of the Italian mafia, received money from investors to purchase trucks for Lusher Trucking Inc, which allegedly belonged to Arsen, although such a company has existed since 1977, and its president, Frank Lasher, has no idea about his Ukrainian colleague. In reality, Arsène Luscher owned a small trucking company that made less than $300,000 a year working for just one large customer. A truck for such transportation costs about 45 thousand dollars, and an investment agreement drawn up and signed by both parties guaranteed the investor a profit of usually 30-40% of the invested amount in a year or two. Thus, the prosecution claims, Arsene Luscher received more than $ 40 million.
Mentioning in the press release that Luscher "used forged documents", Manhattan federal prosecutor Williams was referring to the fact that, according to the prosecution, "in December 2020, Luscher sent one of the victims an income tax return from one of the companies that he controlled and used to carry out his scheme. This alleged tax return was a forgery: the accountant who prepared it did not actually prepare it". The indictment also noted that in February 2021, Luscher changed the final profits in the accounts in an email sent by a bank employee to make it appear that Luscher's companies still had profits that did not actually exist. In particular, the bank employee indicated that one of Luscher's companies had a profit of $8,767 and 26 cents, and the other 320 dollars and 76 cents, and Luscher himself corrected these amounts by 1,228,767 dollars and 26 cents in one case and by 987,320 dollars and 76 cents in the other. In other words, in one case, he inflated his company's profits by 140 times, and in the other, by 3,078 times, and sent this phony to investors to keep them happy.
Arsene Luscher did not buy any trucks, and his pyramid scheme worked according to the classic "Ponzi" scheme, paying off old investors with the money of new ones and keeping the profits. With these profits, Luscher, as the prosecutor claimed in court on October 25, "played at the FanDuel Casino (on the Internet) and in Atlantic City", and when he was arrested, he turned out to be in possession of an expensive watch. At the beginning of 2021, his pyramid collapsed, leaving "more than 20 investors without more than $5 million", as already mentioned. To get two years in prison for such a scam can be considered a gift of fate and justice. For similar actions, New York investment banker Bernard Madoff received 150 years in prison in the same Manhattan court in June 2009 and died 12 years later in a North Carolina state prison at the age of 82. True, his pyramid scheme worked for more than 40 years, and almost 3 million deceived investors lost about $17.5 billion, almost 90% of which ($14.7 billion) was returned to the victims by the manager of the late Maddoff's assets.
In another noteworthy case, on October 24, in federal court for the Eastern District of New York State in Brooklyn, 45-year-old Hafizula (aka Hafiz) Ibadi, who lived in New Jersey, pleaded guilty to imprisonment for up to 10 years and confiscation of more than $1.8 million, as well as collective damages in the amount of more than $198 million. The case is being heard by Judge William Koontz, and in this case, Ibadi became the seventh defendant to plead guilty, and the eighth and main, 31-year-old US citizen Brian Michael Sutton (aka Mile Summers, Mike Miller and Ryan White) permanently lives in Moscow, is charged separately and is wanted. The same can be said about the 34-year-old "American Muscovite" Dela Saidazim (aka Delila, Gina Payne and Olivia Rothstein). The others are 32-year-old Joshua Manuel Alegria (aka Jayboy, Jackson Asher and Turk Molloy), 31-year-old Anthony Satamaria (aka "Big Guy", Ved Watts, Pablo Rodriguez "Rusty Rusty" and Bruce Peter), and 30-year-old Herschl Zickman (aka Andrew Miller and Linus) live in California, while 39-year-old David Bischoff (aka Bobby Fisher) and 33-year-old Brysen Millet (aka Brett Johnson and Tommy Witkinson) live in Utah.
According to the prosecution, the defendants, who are believed to be an organized criminal group, presented more than 50 pharmacies across the country, including the New York boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan and Alabama, fake prescriptions for drugs with a total value of more than $ 1,7 billion and received more than $ 500 million. "Under pseudonyms, through shell companies and front owners, and then moving their operations overseas and laundering millions of dollars through foreign countries," Brooklyn federal prosecutor Brion Peace said in a press release, "the defendants carried out a complex, multifaceted scheme, using points at call centers and remote billing teams to line pockets worth more than a billion dollars," U.S. Attorney Peace said. "Health care fraud haunts American businesses and increases the valuetreatment for everyone. Let these convictions serve as a message: We will work tirelessly to investigate and prosecute those who exploit American health plans, no matter where in the world they operate." The new head of the FBI's New York office, James Dannehy, agreed with the indignation of the Brooklyn prosecutor. "Call centers" are call centers for processing calls and requests via voice communication channels in the interests of the customer.
According to the prosecution, from 2017 to 2022, an American living in Russia, Sutton led accomplices in this scam. Utah-based call centers called customers of private health insurance companies and offered prescribed medications at virtually no cost and without a medical examination to determine whether they needed them. Other members of the criminal group hired doctors to check prescriptions written by nurses and assistants of doctors, allegedly after patient appointments via video link, although there were no such appointments. They also issued fake prescriptions in the name of doctors and under the numbers of NPI - the identifier of pharmacies.
Personally, their roles were distributed as follows. Alegria oversaw the development of special software and sent fake prescriptions to licensed doctors for approval. Bischoff coordinated the logistics for the operation of multidisciplinary pharmacies. Millet controlled call centers in Utah, as well as in Russia and other countries. Ibadi was in charge of procurement and managed the day-to-day operations of pharmacies. Saidazim hired licensed doctors and was Sutton's personal assistant. Santamaria trained a team of invoicers to enter data and send false requests to insurance companies for payouts.
Tsikman laundered the proceeds of fraud through shell companies and shell owners of such companies. Millions of dollars of illegal profit were laundered by the defendants abroad, and with the help of an encrypted Internet connection, acting from Moscow, they acquired dozens of pharmacies in the United States through "straw" intermediaries, through which fake prescriptions passed. Having familiarized yourself with this case, you are once again convinced that the ingenuity of the swindler, multiplied by cyber speeds, will move mountains, if, of course, it is not stopped.
