A federal jury convicted a New York woman earlier this week for her role in an $8 million health care fraud conspiracy.
Olga Popovych, 43, of New York, 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.
Medicare fraud steals directly from American taxpayers and threatens critical health care programs. The Fraud Division is aggressively pursuing those who exploit vulnerable patients, falsify records, and use kickbacks to rig the system. https://t.co/VYiRN4zXaB
— National Fraud Enforcement Division (@DOJFraudDiv) May 29, 2026
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.
The Department of Justice’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, currently comprised of nine strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. More information can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/health-care-fraud-unit.
Trial Attorneys Patrick J. Campbell and John Howard of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Trial Attorney Miriam Glaser Dauermann.
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