Co-owner Samuel Khaimov sentenced to 87 months and administrator Yana Shtindler to 72 months in prison for $65 million fraud scheme paying kickbacks to healthcare professionals for prescription referrals to their Union City pharmacy.

Khaimov / Shtindler Pharmacy (Union City, NJ) — $65M Medicare/Medicaid Kickback Fraud

Outcome: Co-owner Samuel Khaimov sentenced to 87 months in prison; administrator Yana Shtindler sentenced to 72 months in prison; $65 million in fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare, Medicaid, and private pharmacy benefit managers through kickback-driven prescription referral scheme.

Samuel Khaimov (age 52) and Yana Shtindler (age 48) co-owned and administered a pharmacy in Union City, New Jersey. The two were convicted of orchestrating a scheme to defraud pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and government health care programs including Medicare and Medicaid of over $65 million. The fraud was driven by a systematic kickback and bribery operation: the defendants paid illegal remuneration to healthcare professionals and their staff members in exchange for referring prescriptions to their pharmacy.

The scheme involved a network of healthcare providers who received cash and other valuables to steer their patients' prescriptions to the Union City pharmacy — regardless of patient convenience, therapeutic appropriateness, or pricing considerations. This referral-generation approach inflated the pharmacy's prescription volume far beyond what its legitimate market position would support.

Both defendants had previously pleaded guilty before being sentenced on July 2, 2025, by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Primary Source: Pharmacy Owner Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison and Administrator Sentenced to 72 Months for their Respective Roles in a Health Care Fraud and Kickback Scheme