Brooklyn Dentist Accused Of Using Unlicensed Staffers For Work, Defrauding Medicaid

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn dentist used unlicensed people to perform dental work in his office and sent the bills to Medicaid, the New York State Attorney General's Office alleged Friday.

Licensed dentist Joseph Shyknevsky, 46, of Brooklyn, was accused in an indictment of hiring people with no dental license and allowing them to perform dental work on Medicaid recipients, the Attorney General's office said.

He then billed New York State for the dental work performed by the unlicensed people, the AG's office said.

As a result of the fraud, Medicaid paid Shyknevsky more than $48,000 for unlicensed dental work performed on 110 Medicaid recipients, the AG's office said.

A Brooklyn grand jury indicted Shyknevsky, along with his corporation JS Atlantic Dental PC, and four unlicensed people who allegedly performed dental work – Ilya Zolotar, 50, of Staten Island; Konstantin Shtrambrand, 46, of Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania; Sergi Tolokolnikov, 57, of Staten Island, and Valerian Kverenchkhiladze, 43, of Brooklyn, the AG's office said.

(Clockwise from top left): Ilya Zolotar, Konstantin Shtrambrand, Valerian Kverenchkhiladze, and Sergi Tolokolnikov are accused of performing dental work without a license in a scheme to defraud Medicaid. (Credit: New York State Attorney General's office)

Zolotar, Shtrambrand and Tolokolnikov were also arrested by the Attorney General's office in 2014 for allegedly performing unlicensed dental work on patients – including filing and root canals, the AG's office said.

In the latest case, the four defendants were charged with health care fraud. Shyknevsky and his company, Zolotar, and Shtrambrand were also charged with unauthorized practice of a profession, offering a false instrument of filing, and falsifying business records.

If convicted, each defendant could be sentenced to seven years in prison, the AG's office said.