WASHINGTON, December 5 (RIA Novosti) – US federal prosecutors have charged dozens of current and former Russian diplomats and their spouses stationed in New York City in the alleged defrauding of $1.5 million from a government health care program aimed at helping the poor.
The 49 defendants are accused of involvement in the “systematic” fraudulent submission of falsified applications for benefits under the US health care program Medicaid associated with costs for pregnancy, birth and young children, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday.
“Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said in a statement Thursday.
Each of the defendants named in the complaint is a current or former diplomat – or the spouse of a diplomat – working in New York City at the Russian Mission to the United Nations, the Russian consulate, and the Russian Trade Representation, Bharara said.
The Russian defendants named in the unsealed complaint allegedly obtained nearly $500,000 in fraudulent Medicaid claims, part of a total of $1.5 million in fraudulent claims purportedly made by the defendants and dozens of other accused conspirators not named in the complaint, Bharara’s office said.
The alleged fraudulent information purportedly submitted by the defendants to qualify for Medicaid benefits included income reports and the citizenship status of their children, prosecutors said.
The Russian Embassy in Washington said Thursday that it doubts the accusations are justified.
“We have been informed about these reports. There are serious doubts that they are well-founded. All these reports need to be examined,” an embassy spokesman said.
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