LOS ANGELES : Operator of Health-Care Scam Sentenced to 21 Years

A Russian immigrant who, with his brother, pulled off what is believed to be the largest health-care scam in U.S. history, was sentenced Monday to more than 21 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $41 million in restitution.

Michael Smushkevich, who pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of mail and wire fraud, money laundering and embezzlement, among other things, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter to forfeit more than $50 million in assets from his bogus medical diagnostics clinic.

Prosecutors said Smushkevich, who has been linked to the KGB and Russian organized crime, and his his brother, David, a Soviet doctor never licensed to practice medicine here, lured patients to their phony clinics by making unsolicited calls to people and promising free or low-cost physical exams.

Although most patients were healthy, prosecutors said, the two men falsified medical records to create the impression that the patients were ill and required sophisticated diagnostic tests for which insurance firms were then fraudulently billed.

Prosecutors said the scam went on for 10 years before the case finally was broken by a joint federal-state investigation coordinated by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

David Smushkevich, the brother, is still awaiting sentencing.