Former attorney pleads guilty in $28.3M scheme

A disbarred North Carolina attorney pleaded guilty to her role in a $28.3 million Medicare fraud scheme that involved several outpatient rehab facilities in Florida, including one Venice and one in Fort Myers.

Margarita M. Grishkoff, 59, of Charlotte, N.C., and formerly of southwest Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, according a release from the U.S. Attorney's office. The FBI and the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General brought the case against Grishkoff through the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. The U.S. Attorney's office for the Middle District of Florida, based in Tampa, oversaw the investigation.

Authorities contend Grishkoff and her co-conspirators used various physical therapy clinics and other business entities throughout Florida and other states to submit fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare from 2005 through 2009. Those claims, according to prosecutors, totaled $28.3 million, and Medicare paid approximately $14.4 million on those requests. 

Grishkoff, disbarred in 1997, was vice president, director and registered agent in Florida for a Delaware holding company under the name Ulysses Acquisitions Inc. Grishkoff and co-conspirators, authorities allege, used Ulysses Acquisitions to purchase comprehensive outpatient rehab facilities and outpatient physical therapy providers to gain control of these clinics' Medicare provider numbers. The clinics Ulysses purchased included West Coast Rehab Inc. in Fort Myers and Rehab Dynamics Inc. in Venice, in addition to facilities in Lake Wales and Port St. Lucie.

Grishkoff and her co-conspirators, in Miami and other areas, then obtained identifying information of Medicare beneficiaries by paying kickbacks, investigators say. They also obtained unique identifying information of physicians. 

“Grishkoff and her co-conspirators then used this information to create and submit false claims to Medicare through the clinics Ulysses Acquisitions purchased,” the release from the U.S. Attorney's office states. “These claims sought reimbursement for therapy services that were not legitimately prescribed and not actually provided.” 

When Grishkoff and her co-conspirators were done using the clinics they acquired through Ulysses Acquisitions, authorities say they engaged in sham sales of the facilities to nominee or straw owners. Those new owners were recent U.S. immigrants with no background or experience in the health care industry. Grishkoff and others did this, the release states, in an effort to try to disassociate themselves from the fraudulent operations of their clinics.

A sentencing date hasn't been set yet for Grishkoff. She faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.