Fraud charges have been filed against Irina Sadovsky.
Irina Sadovsky, 53, of Calabasas, California, was convicted of “conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs.” The pharmacy owner faces up to 15 years in prison for these charges, including a maximum punishment of up to a decade for the conspiracy to commit health care fraud and 5 years for the unlicensed distribution conspiracy, following her sentencing scheduled on February 3, 2023, in the Los Angeles Federal Court.
According to court records, the indictments against the pharmacy owner were first filed on June 20, 2018, against the defendant and six other co-conspirators all involved in the fraud scheme. Sadovsky and her co-participants engaged in this activity, involving two California pharmacies, from around September 2016 until sometime around April 2017. The pharmacies were Five Star Pharmacy and Ultimate Pharmacy Inc., which Sadovsky owned and acted as the head-pharmacist.
Court-presented evidence showed that Sadovsky and the others generated false prescriptions. They did so by either personally writing the prescriptions or by rewarding kickbacks to marketers who had access to both the patients and the prescribers. Sadovsky submitted fraudulent claims to Medi-Cal and Medicare after recommending that prescription drug combinations be written and checking the reimbursement eligibility of the patients involved.
Among the co-conspirators was Andrei Sotnikov. During his disposition, Sotnikov was indicted to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons. Following a 21-month prison term, he was placed on supervised release for a length of 3 years.
In 2016, Irina Sadovsky and her husband, Dan Sadovsky and his companies, Kazak-Mars, Inc. (Kazak-Mars) and Optimas B-Sol, Inc. (Optimas), were sued by a previous employee, Leonard Levinson. Dan and his companies were originally dismissed from the case after several objections. However, the decision to dismiss Dan Sadovky was later reversed, while the dismissal of Optimas remained.
The reversal states “The judgment dismissing Dan and Kazak-Mars is reversed, and the court is directed to enter a new order overruling the demurrer as to Levinson’s conversion cause of action only. The judgment of dismissal of Optimas is affirmed. The parties shall bear their own costs on appeal.” In other words, Sadovky and Roe would face separate legal costs in the cases against them.
Leonard Levinson was a shareholder in Five Star Rx, Inc., the same pharmacy owned by Sadovsky. Levinson owned 45% of the company’s stock, while Sadovsky owned the other 55%. In this case, filed under Levinson v. Sadovsky, B261012 (Cal. Ct. App. Aug. 31, 2016), Levinson alleged that he was wrongfully terminated as a director of the pharmacy and denied access to corporate documents. He also claimed that there was a document containing a signature of his that had been forged. Levinson also purported that Five Star Rx had “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in unexplained inventory loss. This brought to light Irina Sadovsky’s scheme to issue fake prescriptions and drain the inventory. It led to a subsequent investigation into the claims and her eventual indictment.
Sources:
Pharmacist Convicted for Health Care Fraud and Black-Market Prescription Drug Diversion Scheme
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