Disbarred Tampa Attorney Pleads Guilty to $28.3 Million Medicare Fraud

Disbarred Tampa Attorney Margarita M. Grishkoff has pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida to her involvement in a $28.3 million Medicare fraud scheme that involved both physical and occupational therapy services. The conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud could result in her being sentenced to 10 years in prison, informs the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Court documents indicate that Grishkoff, along with her co-conspirators, used different physical therapy clinics and other businesses throughout Florida and other places to submit close to $28.3 million in fraudulent Medicare reimbursement claims from 2005 through 2009. Of these claims, Medicare paid about $14.4 million.


Grishkoff of Charlotte (NC) and formerly of Southwest Florida had been Vice President, Director, and registered agent for a Delaware holding company known as Ulysses Acquisitions Inc. in Florida in the past. She was disbarred in 1997, much before her involvement in the present fraud scheme.

According to papers filed in a case, Grishkoff and her co-conspirators used Ulysses Acquisitions to purchase comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities and outpatient physical therapy providers to gain control of the Medicare provider numbers of these clinics. The clinics in Florida making it to their list include West Coast Rehab Inc. in Fort Myers; Polk Rehabilitation Inc. in Lake Wales; Rehab Dynamics Inc. in Venice; and Renew Therapy Center of Port St. Lucie LLC in Port St. Lucie. Grishkoff and her associates obtained identifying information of Medicare beneficiaries by paying kickbacks. They also got hold of unique identifying information of physicians. All this information was used to create and submit false claims to Medicare through the clinics purchased by Ulysses Acquisitions. These claims sought reimbursement for therapy services that were not legitimately prescribed and not actually provided. And if this was not all, the group also paid kickbacks to co-conspirators who owned other therapy clinics used to further the fraud scheme by submitting false claims on their behalf. Such entities include Miami-based therapy clinics like American Wellness Centers Inc., Hallandale Rehabilitation Inc., Tropical Physical Therapy Corporation, and Wes Regional Center Inc.

Grishkoff and her co-conspirators use to retain about 20 percent of the money Medicare paid for the claims and paid the other 80 percent of the fraud proceeds to co-conspirator clinic owners.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG and prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Andrew H. Warren and Christopher J. Hunter of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and Assistant United States Attorney Simon A. Gaugush of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.