TRENTON
- Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced
that the owner of a now-defunct Newark mental
health and substance abuse counseling center
was sentenced to state prison today after
being convicted of defrauding Medicaid.
Rostislav
"Steve" Vilshteyn, 33, of Staten
Island, New York, was sentenced to five
years in state prison by Superior Court
Judge Thomas R. Vena. Vilshteyn was also
ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to
the New Jersey Medicaid program.
Vilshteyn
was convicted on Feb. 2, 2012 of second-degree
health care claims fraud and third-degree
Medicaid fraud following a three-week jury
trial in front of Superior Court Judge Thomas
R. Vena in Essex County. The charges were
contained in a May 11, 2010 state grand
jury indictment. Vilshteyn was the owner
and operator of the Bloomfield Health Pavilion
LLC (BHP), formerly located at 86 Bloomfield
Avenue in Newark.
In
convicting Vilshteyn, the jury determined
that between October 2006 and January 2008,
as the owner and operator of BHP, Vilshteyn
submitted or caused to be submitted to the
Medicaid program claims for reimbursement
for counseling services for numerous Medicaid
beneficiaries, even though the services
had either not been provided or had not
been provided to the extent alleged in the
claims.
Acting
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi
noted that Deputy Attorneys General Dolores
Blackburn and David Noble, Acting Medicaid
Fraud Control Unit Chief Nicole Rizzolo,
Lieutenant Vincent Gaeta and Detectives
Laura Pezzuti, Ronald Allen and Matthew
Michalik participated in the investigation.
Investigator Joseph Varone and Nurse Investigator
Janet Keenan of the Office of the State
Comptroller assisted in the investigation.
Additional assistance was provided by Bhavini
"Mona" Patel and B'leia Williams.
Blackburn and Noble represented the Office
of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the
sentencing.
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