California Doctor Convicted of $45M Botox Fraud Scheme Targeting Medicare

Fraud Division’s Data-Driven Approach Returns Outsized Results for Taxpayers A jury in the Central District of California convicted a California doctor yesterday in a $45 million scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting claims for Botox injections that were never provided and medically unnecessary, and for obstructing the investigation by manipulating and altering medical records in an attempt to mislead criminal investigators. The investigation was initiated as a result of a referral from the Health Care Fraud Section’s Data Analytics Team, after its analysis showed that the defendant was paid more by Medicare for Botox injections than any other doctor in the United States. “Violetta Mailyan falsely diagnosed patients, fraudulently billed for Botox injections while she was actually on lavish vacations, and tried to trick federal agents with fake records,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “The Fraud Division’s data-driven approach will shine a light on fraud schemes across the country, ensuring that no doctor can engage in these types of brazen schemes to rob Medicare.” “Physicians who defraud and manipulate federally funded health care programs to line their own pockets do so at the expense of American taxpayers and those who are in legitimate need of medical procedures,” said Assistant Director in Charge Patrick Grandy of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI is gratified that the jury convicted Dr. Mailyan based on the evidence, which uncovered the largest Botox fraud scheme in the United States, to include brazenly billing for someone who was incarcerated. Furthermore, the FBI is committed to pursuing physicians and others in the healthcare system who fleece Medicare and, in doing so, drive up premiums and co-payments for law-abiding citizens.” According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Glendale, owned and operated Healthy Way Medical Center, a clinic that purported to provide beauty and cosmetic services. Although Medicare reimburses medical providers for Botox injections when necessary to treat documented cases of chronic migraines, Mailyan billed and received payments for thousands of injections that were never provided or were provided only for cosmetic purposes or for patients whose primary care physicians had not referred them for treatment of chronic migraines. For example, the evidence at trial showed that Mailyan billed for providing Botox injections when she was actually on vacation in Cabo, Mexico; Maui, Hawaii; Las Vegas; Pennsylvania; and New York; billed for purportedly injecting a Medicare beneficiary who was actually incarcerated in federal prison at the time; and billed for thousands of injections, representing over $19 million, purportedly provided on days when her clinic was closed. The evidence also showed that Mailyan backdated some claims to bill for injections purportedly provided before the patients even contacted Mailyan’s clinic to request an appointment, and fabricated patient medical records, including patient consent forms, to make it appear as if patients suffered from chronic migraines and had received treatment for those migraines in her office. In addition to the fraudulent billing, the evidence at trial showed that Mailyan actively sought to cover up her crimes when investigators were closing in. After receiving a grand jury subpoena seeking medical records, Mailyan altered patient records to make it appear as if she had provided Botox injections for chronic migraines when in fact those services had not been provided, and provided the altered documents to federal agents. The evidence at trial showed that Mailyan used Medicare funds she obtained through the scheme to pay for her lavish vacations in Mexico, Hawaii, and elsewhere, and to purchase luxury collectible goods such as a $12,000 17th century crossbow and a $3,000 painting. This prosecution illustrates the success of the Department’s efforts to use advanced data analytics to detect health care fraud schemes and bring the perpetrators to justice. The Health Care Fraud Section’s Data Analytics Team identified Mailyan as an extreme outlier among doctors receiving Medicare payments for Botox, having at the time been paid more than $24 million over the previous four years — six times the next highest group of providers, all of whom were neurologists. As the investigation and evidence presented at trial showed, Mailyan’s outlier status owed entirely to her pervasive and long-running fraud scheme. Following the conviction, the jury also found that a Tesla Model X, a Tesla Cybertruck, $251,124 in funds contained in multiple bank accounts, brokerage accounts valued at $7,312,037 at the time of seizure, and four properties in Surfside and Glendale, California with combined estimated equity of $7,343,636, were proceeds of the fraud subject to forfeiture. Mailyan was convicted of nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of obstruction of a criminal investigation of a health care offense. She is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10, 2026. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and 5 years in prison for each count of obstruction.