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New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday, Oct. 22, that the Orange County owners of DYD Universe, a New York Medicaid-enrolled transportation company, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a scheme that stole more than $2.1 million from Medicaid and paid illegal kickbacks to Medicaid recipients.
According to James, Damir Yuldashev, age 64, his son Daler Yuldashev, age 38, and Daler’s mother, Nigina Iskandarova, age 60, all of Monroe, admitted that from April 2018 to March 2023, they stole more than $2.1 million from Medicaid by submitting fraudulent claims for services that they knowingly did not provide and toll charges that they knew were not incurred.
The owners also admitted to paying illegal kickbacks to Medicaid recipients in exchange for providing DYD with their confidential Medicaid identification to carry out the scheme.
As a result of the pleas, Damir Yuldashev will be sentenced to two to six years in prison and, along with Daler Yuldashev, must pay back over $2.1 million to Medicaid.
Daler Yuldashev and Nigina Iskandarova will be sentenced to probation. All three defendants will be permanently banned from providing services in government-funded health programs and must perform 1,200 hours of community service.
“Stealing taxpayer funds meant to provide health care for low-income New Yorkers is unacceptable,” said James. “Instead of providing vulnerable patients with the transportation services they needed to get them to their appointments, these individuals exploited Medicaid recipients to carry out their fraud.”
James said to carry out their scheme, the defendants paid Medicaid recipients to sign up with DYD and use fake addresses or drive themselves to their appointments, allowing DYD to either inflate or submit entirely false claims for transportation to Medicaid.
These payments were illegal and undermined the businesses of other transportation providers in the Hudson Valley. James said that some passengers were paid thousands of dollars each to take rides, allowing DYD to collect tens of thousands of dollars in fees per passenger.
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