Post by rmarks1 on Dec 5, 2013 22:59:08 GMT -5
This one really takes the cake.
Bob
WASHINGTON — Current and former Russian diplomats in New York claimed poverty to fraudulently collect Medicaid for their pregnant wives and children while shopping at Prada and Tiffany's and taking cruise vacations, the U.S. government charged Thursday.
The Justice Department said 49 Russians or their spouses currently or formerly attached to the Russian Consulate, United Nations or trade missions illegally collected $1.5 million in benefits over about a decade in New York City.
Income levels were falsified in Medicaid applications signed by senior Russian officials in what U.S. Atty. Preet Bharara called "shameful and systemic corruption among Russian diplomats in New York." The diplomats' actual income, the Justice Department said, "was often hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars more per month."
One diplomat reported his salary to be $60,000 a year, the Justice Department said, but his family was paying for more than $50,000 in purchases.
"Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country," said Bharara, the U.S. attorney for New York's southern district.
The FBI's 18-month investigation threatened to further strain already tense relations between the two countries. Russian officials in New York and Washington did not immediately respond to the charges, but the State Department went out of its way to minimize the damage.
"We don't think this should affect our bilateral relationship with Russia," said State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf. "Quite frankly, there are too many important issues we have to work on together. The justice system will proceed in the way that it does here in the states, and we don't think it should impact our relationship."
The Interfax news agency in Moscow quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying the Russian government was "bewildered" that the State Department had not consulted the Russian government before the charges were filed.
Ryabkov told Itar-Tass, Russia's state news agency, that the charges catered to "Russophobic forces."
It is unclear whether any of the diplomats will face justice. Most of those charged are no longer in the U.S., and the 11 who are may have diplomatic immunity.
www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-russian-medicaid-fraud-20131206,0,620963.story#ixzz2mfCYU1qy
The Justice Department said 49 Russians or their spouses currently or formerly attached to the Russian Consulate, United Nations or trade missions illegally collected $1.5 million in benefits over about a decade in New York City.
Income levels were falsified in Medicaid applications signed by senior Russian officials in what U.S. Atty. Preet Bharara called "shameful and systemic corruption among Russian diplomats in New York." The diplomats' actual income, the Justice Department said, "was often hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars more per month."
One diplomat reported his salary to be $60,000 a year, the Justice Department said, but his family was paying for more than $50,000 in purchases.
"Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country," said Bharara, the U.S. attorney for New York's southern district.
The FBI's 18-month investigation threatened to further strain already tense relations between the two countries. Russian officials in New York and Washington did not immediately respond to the charges, but the State Department went out of its way to minimize the damage.
"We don't think this should affect our bilateral relationship with Russia," said State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf. "Quite frankly, there are too many important issues we have to work on together. The justice system will proceed in the way that it does here in the states, and we don't think it should impact our relationship."
The Interfax news agency in Moscow quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying the Russian government was "bewildered" that the State Department had not consulted the Russian government before the charges were filed.
Ryabkov told Itar-Tass, Russia's state news agency, that the charges catered to "Russophobic forces."
It is unclear whether any of the diplomats will face justice. Most of those charged are no longer in the U.S., and the 11 who are may have diplomatic immunity.
www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-russian-medicaid-fraud-20131206,0,620963.story#ixzz2mfCYU1qy
Bob
