New York Pharmacists Get Prison Time for Covid Money Laundering

Two pharmacy owners were sentenced for using New York-area pharmacies to submit millions in fraudulent claims to Medicare and then laundering the proceeds during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Justice Department said Monday.

Peter Khaim and his brother Arkadiy Khaimov, of Forest Hills, NY, were sentenced to eight years and one month and six years in prison, respectively, according to the announcement.

The defendants and their co-conspirators exploited the Covid-19 emergency for their own financial gain by using Covid-related “emergency override” billing codes to submit claims for expensive cancer medications Targretin Gel 1% and Panretin Gel 0.1% that were not …