United States Attorney for the Northern District of California announced criminal charges against five defendants in connection with allegations that they defrauded Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs and illegally diverted drugs.
The charges filed in federal court are part of the Department of Justice’s 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. The charges stem from various schemes, including a doctor who submitted unnecessary claims for medical equipment, individuals who ran or participated in fraud schemes to obtain money from federally funded health insurance programs through false claims, and a nurse who diverted pain medication for his own use.
The California charges are part of a strategically coordinated, nationwide law enforcement action that resulted in criminal charges against 324 defendants for their alleged participation in health care fraud and illegal drug diversion schemes that involved the submission of over $14.6 billion in alleged false billings and over 15 million pills of illegally diverted controlled substances. The defendants allegedly defrauded programs entrusted for the care of the elderly and disabled to line their own pockets, and the Government, in connection with the Takedown, seized over $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, and other assets.
The following individuals were charged in the Northern District of California:
– – Vincent Thayer, 41, of San Jose, California, was charged by indictment with wire fraud, health care fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with a $68 million medical office visit scheme. As alleged in the indictment, Thayer owned Patient Payment Agent, which did business as My Community Testing, and was a purported COVID-19 testing money. Through this company, Thayer caused the submission of approximately $68,205,233 in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and the HRSA COVID-19 Uninsured Program, of which approximately $11,751,819 was paid, for office visits purportedly performed by medical professionals but that never occurred. Thayer also misappropriated the identity of a doctor to enroll his company in Medicare and Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid program).
– – Sevendik Huseynov, 47, a national of Azerbaijan currently residing in Sunnyvale, California, and the owner and CEO of Vonyes, Inc. in Sunnyvale, California, was charged by criminal complaint and arrested on June 26, 2025. The complaint alleges that the defendant committed health care fraud through a scheme to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare Advantage Organizations (“MAOs”) on behalf of unsuspecting beneficiaries for durable medical equipment (“DME”). The complaint alleges that Huseynov, from January 15, 2025, through June 16, 2025, through his entity Vonyes, submitted more than 7,200 claims to at least eight separate MAOs offering Medicare Part C benefit plans, and that those claims sought reimbursement of more than $137 million for DME such as back braces, knee braces, and wrist braces. The complaint alleges that certain of the purported beneficiaries contacted by law enforcement were not aware of the DME prescriptions and did not need the prescribed DME. The complaint also alleges that a healthcare provider listed as a referring physician on many billing claims had never prescribed DME supplied by Vonyes and that the patients listed on those claims were not his patients. The complaint also alleges that a review of bank records for Vonyes and Huseynov did not show any purchases of actual DME. At least $761,037.63 was paid to Vonyes, into accounts controlled solely by Huseynov, from MAOs during the scheme.
– – Clinton Johnson Christian, 38, of Fairfield, California, was charged by indictment with tampering with consumer products and intentionally obtaining controlled substances through deception and subterfuge in connection with diverting a controlled substance for his personal use. As alleged in the indictment, Christian accessed a machine that held hydromorphone by falsely stating a patient needed the controlled substance, removed a vial of hydromorphone, extracted the hydromorphone and re-filled the vial with saline before replacing the vial and cancelling the patient’s order.\
– – Dr. Yasmin Pirani, 46, of British Columbia, Canada, was charged by indictment with health care fraud and false statements related to health care matters in connection with a $35.2 million telemedicine fraud scheme. As alleged in the indictment, in exchange for payments from a telemedicine company, Dr. Pirani signed prescriptions for DME that was medically unnecessary, for Medicare beneficiaries with whom she lacked a pre-existing doctor-patient relationship, without a physical examination, and without any conversation with the beneficiary or based solely on a short telephonic conversation. Dr. Pirani falsely diagnosed Medicare beneficiaries with certain conditions to support the DME prescriptions and falsely attested that the information in medical records was accurate, concealing that she did not have any interaction with the Medicare beneficiaries or that the interaction was brief and telephonic. The telemedicine company solicited illegal kickbacks and bribes from DME suppliers in exchange for DME prescriptions signed by Dr. Pirani, and the DME suppliers billed Medicare approximately $32.5 million based on Dr. Pirani’s prescriptions.
– – Patrick Omeife, 33, of Ghana, was charged by indictment with two counts of concealment money laundering in connection with a scheme to launder approximately $33,765 that was fraudulently disbursed from a federal COVID-19 relief program and intended for an optometrist whose identity had been stolen. As alleged in the indictment, Omeife, falsely purporting to be a covert agent of the U.S. government, began an online romantic relationship with a woman and requested that the woman use her bank account to receive his salary. This woman provided Omeife with her bank account information, and her account was used in a September 2020 fraudulent application for funds from the COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund (“PRF”). The PRF provided funds to health care providers that were financially impacted by COVID-19. Based on the fraudulent September 2020 application, the PRF disbursed approximately $33,765 intended for the optometrist into the woman’s bank account. At Omeife’s direction, the woman converted the funds to Bitcoin cryptocurrency and transferred the Bitcoin to Omeife’s cryptocurrency account. Omeife repeatedly provided identifying information to his cryptocurrency exchange, to include his Republic of Ghana driver’s license and “selfie” photographs of his face and bare upper body, depicting a distinctive tattoo on his chest of the Bitcoin currency symbol. Numerous additional fraudulent PRF applications connected to the application made in the optometrist’s name resulted in at least $1.6 million of fraudulent disbursement of funds related to COVID-19 relief programs.
The Northern District of California, in particular, worked with the Department’s Criminal Division and Health Care Fraud Unit and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations.