Highland Park Supply Store Owners Plead Guilty to Fraud

The shoes might have fit, but the buyers didn't need to be reimbursed for them.

Two owners of a medical supply store in Middlesex County pleaded guilty to attempting to defraud the New Jersey Medicaid program out of no less than $150,000 for the unnecessary reimbursement of what they falsely claimed were orthopedic shoes, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced on Friday.

Marina Finkel, 50, of Staten Island, New York, and Yelena Medvedik, 40, of Holmdel, each pleaded guilty to individual charges of second-degree conspiracy and second-degree health care claims fraud, Hoffman said.

Finkel and Medvedik operated Highland Park-based DNT Medical LLC, a.k.a. Comfort Health. They admitted that they attempted to defraud the New Jersey Medicaid program via false claims for orthopedic shoes between Oct. 3, 2006 and Dec. 16, 2011, Hoffman said.

The shoes in question were not orthopedic and didn’t qualify for reimbursement, Hoffman said.

“Through their scheme, these defendants scammed the Medicaid system, a system that is meant to help New Jersey’s most vulnerable population,” Hoffman said in the prepared statement. 

The state will recommend Finkel and Medvedik serve three years in state prison and pay a total of $300,000, Hoffman said. They are also expected to be debarred from the State Medicaid Program for eight years.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 31.