Posted on: May 29, 2026 11:30 AM

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Clinic manager convicted of USD8 million medicare fraud scheme

Olga Popovych was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn for her role in an $8 million health care fraud conspiracy. Popovych was an office manager of several physical therapy clinics in Brooklyn that paid cash kickbacks to ambulette drivers who recruited Medicare patients to transport to clinics.  The verdict was returned after a one-week trial before United States District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall.

Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Colin M. McDonald, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, Naomi Gruchacz, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and James C. Barnacle, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the verdict.

As proven at trial, Popovych was personally involved with paying ambulette drivers cash kickbacks.  She also falsified medical records to indicate that physical therapists who were not actually at the clinic treated the patients.  Between 2018 and 2020, Medicare paid these clinics over $8 million.

There was witness testimony that Popovych exchanged text messages with her co-conspirators that discussed the payment of kickbacks through the use of code words.  The evidence also showed that Popovych suspected that the clinics were being watched by law enforcement and took steps to conceal the scheme.

Popovych was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to make false statements relating to health care matters, four counts of health care fraud, and three counts of making false statements relating to health care matters. When sentenced, she faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each health care fraud conviction and five years in prison for each false statements count.

HHS-OIG and FBI investigated the case.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division).  The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people.  The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

From DOJ