Three New York Residence Staged Accident Participants Plead Guilty

Press Release

Three New York City residents: TATIANA ILYAYEV,46, VYACHESLAV ILYAYEV,46, and ROMAN ILYAYEV 37, pled guilty before the U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, to health care fraud, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, or both United States Attorney Terrance P. Flynn had announced.

On the same day, SABINA ILYAYEV,36, also of New York City, plead guilty to a one-count of theft from a health care benefit program, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000.00, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John E. Rogowski, who prosecuted the case, stated that the defendants, in pleading guilty, admitted that between September, 2001, and April, 2004, they were participants in a “staged accident” scheme which was organized in Western New York. On September 27, 2001, in Buffalo, and on October 3, 2001, in Amherst, staged collisions were orchestrated by several other individuals. At the scenes of these staged collisions, individual co-conspirators falsely identified themselves as one of the Ilyayevs. The Ilyayevs, despite the fact that they were not even in Western New York when the staged collisions took place, filed fraudulent no-fault insurance claims in which they each claimed to have been injured as the result of the collisions which they falsely claimed were accidental. The Ilyayevs then went to a medical clinic in Brooklyn, New York, where they sought treatment for purported injuries they falsely claimed were suffered in the “accidental” collisions in Western New York. Medical providers associated with those clinics then submitted claims to insurance companies seeking payments for treatments they claimed were rendered to the Ilyayevs as a result of injuries the Ilyayevs suffered in the Western New York “accidents.” As a result, Travelers and Allstate Insurances companies paid a total of approximately $87,000 to various medical providers for medical treatment that, if actually rendered, was not rendered as a result of injuries received in a real accident.

In pleading guilty, the Ilyayevs also admitted that in furtherance of their criminal scheme, they each pursued bogus personal injury claims in New York City. They each filed a personal injury claim in which they falsely stated that they were injured as a result of automobile accidents in Western New York. As a result of the false claims, Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc., and Travelers Insurance company paid a total of approximately $40,000 in settlements for the bogus personal injury claims to the Ilyayevs and others associated with the Ilyayevs.

Roman Ilyayev (who was married to Sabina) and Vyacheslav Ilyayev (who is married to Tatiana) are brothers. All four of the Ilyayevs were born in Uzbekistan, part of the former Soviet Union.

The convictions were the result of an investigation conducted by the Western New York Health Care Fraud Task Force consisting of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Labor - Office of Labor Racketeering, United States Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation Division, United States Postal Inspection Service, United Postal Service Office of Inspector General, United States Department of Defense - Criminal Investigation Service, United States Food and Drug Administration - Office of Criminal Investigation, and the New York State Insurance Fraud Bureau. The United States Department of Homeland Security - Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Amherst Police Department also participated in the investigation. Fifteen other individuals have previously pled guilty to criminal offenses associated with the same staged collision scheme. The investigation into others associated with the criminal activity is continuing.