U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York: Press Release: Four Defendants Charged In Multi-Million Dollar No-Fault Insurance Fraud Scheme And Money Laundering Conspiracy

By: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, DILSHOD ISLAMOV, and ALVARO GEOVANNI QUIJADA LEMUS. The Indictment charges KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and DILSHOD ISLAMOV with operating an extensive no-fault insurance fraud that submitted more than $11 million in fraudulent claims for psychological testing and services—and for laundering the proceeds of that fraud through a network of illicit check cashers, including ALVARO GEOVANNI QUIJADA LEMUS. The defendants were arrested this morning and were presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave in Manhattan Federal Court.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “No fault insurance fraud schemes raise costs for everyone and exploit a system designed to make healthcare more accessible. As alleged in the indictment, Kenan Tariverdi, Nazim Tariverdi, and Dilshod Islamov orchestrated a deceitful, complex scheme to cheat insurance providers out of millions of dollars. These defendants then allegedly worked with a network of money launderers, including Alvaro Geovanni Quijada Lemus, to profit from their crime. I commend the FBI and our dedicated team of prosecutors for their outstanding work in dismantling this massive fraud operation.”

According to allegations in the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan Court[1]:

KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV devised a fraudulent scheme to take advantage of New York’s no fault insurance law, which enables the driver and passengers of a vehicle registered and insured in New York State to obtain benefits of up to $50,000 per person for injuries suffered in a car accident, regardless of fault. Under New York State law, medical corporations are unable to bill insurance companies for no-fault benefits if the medical facilities are controlled by non-physicians. KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV defrauded insurance carriers by submitting insurance claims from medical corporations that were nominally owned by licensed medical professionals but were in fact owned and controlled by KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV, who were not licensed medical practitioners. If insurance companies had known that the nominee medical corporations were actually owned and controlled by KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV, the insurance companies would have denied payment for claims submitted by the nominee medical corporations.

KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV also carried out their fraudulent scheme by conspiring to bill insurances companies in the names of psychologists, medical professionals, and medical corporations under their nominal control for services that the psychologists and medical professionals did not actually perform. When preparing these fraudulent bills, the conspiracy operated by KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV frequently used the license information and signatures of psychologists and medical professionals on fraudulent billing records submitted to insurance companies.

Additionally, KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV conspired to bill insurance companies for expensive procedures, including psychological testing and treatment, regardless of medical necessity. These unnecessary medical procedures were carried out pursuant to billing protocols that the defendants and their coconspirators designed and implemented at various clinics in and around New York City to maximize the dollar amounts on insurance claims, rather than to provide necessary medical and psychological treatment.

As a result of their fraudulent scheme, KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV caused insurance providers to be billed over approximately $10 million in fraudulent claims for psychological testing and services.

KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV also carried out a scheme to launder the proceeds of their conspiracy. Their money laundering scheme operated by taking control over various bank accounts that received payments derived from the fraudulent claims that the conspiracy operated by KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV submitted to insurance companies. Such bank accounts were nominally held by psychologists or medical professionals, but KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV gained control over them through various means, including by directing the psychologists and medical professionals to sign stacks of blank checks drawn on their accounts. KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV then used those checks to transfer funds into a network of shell companies that were controlled by the money laundering conspiracy.

KENAN TARIVERDI, NAZIM TARIVERDI, and ISLAMOV used a network of money launderers to cash checks from their shell companies. ALVARO GEOVANNI QUIJADA-LEMUS was one unlicensed check casher who, in exchange for a fee, provided cash in exchange for checks the shell companies. QUIJADA-LEMUS, in turn, sold approximately 50 checks from the shell companies for approximately $200,000 to an individual cooperating with law enforcement.

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KENAN TARIVERDI, 55, of Staten Island, New York; NAZIM TARIVERDI, 32, of Staten Island, New York; and DILSHOD ISLAMOV, 43, of Brooklyn, New York are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year consecutive sentence, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. ALVARO GEOVANNI QUIJADA-LEMUS, 38, of Holmdel, New Jersey, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a maximum of five years in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants would be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The case is being handled by the Office’s Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cecilia Vogel, Christopher Brumwell, and Vladislav Vainberg are in charge of the prosecution.