A crooked California doctor who ripped off Medicare for more than $45 million to bankroll luxury vacations, expensive cars, and a jaw-dropping $12,000 antique crossbow is finally facing serious prison time.
Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Glendale, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars after a jury found her guilty of running an enormous fraud operation through her Healthy Way Medical Center clinic, submitting fraudulent claims for Botox treatments that were medically unnecessary, purely cosmetic or never performed at all.
The staggering scam wasn’t just about bogus paperwork. Mailyan billed taxpayers for treatments supposedly administered while her clinic was shuttered — and even while she was thousands of miles away enjoying vacations.
Evidence presented at trial showed more than $19 million in claims involved Botox injections supposedly performed on days when the clinic was closed.
Mailyan also submitted claims while traveling to Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania and New York.
In one particularly brazen example, she billed Medicare more than $200,000 for treatments supposedly performed on California patients while she was actually soaking up the sun on a beach in Cabo.
Medicare reimburses Botox injections when medically necessary to treat documented chronic migraines.
Prosecutors said Mailyan ripped off the program by billing for thousands of procedures that were never performed, were purely cosmetic or involved patients who lacked the required primary-care referrals for chronic migraine treatment.
And the alleged fraud helped bankroll quite a shopping spree.
Among the luxury items purchased with the stolen money were a $12,000 17th-century crossbow and a $3,000 painting.
The jury also found that Mailyan used fraud proceeds to buy two Tesla vehicles, including a Cybertruck, and five pieces of California real estate.
The sentencing judge delivered a blistering assessment of the operation, describing Mailyan’s fraud as “truly breathtaking in scope and shocking in its duration,” and her conduct as “almost unbelievable in their brazenness.”
The financial reckoning is substantial, too. The court ordered the immediate forfeiture of more than $16 million in seized assets, including real estate, personal property, securities and bank funds, effectively returning that money to the United States.
Mailyan was also ordered to repay Medicare $32,904,049.41 in restitution, while the federal government vowed to aggressively pursue the return of the stolen funds.
Her conviction followed a six-day jury trial that ended in May 2026.
Jurors found her guilty on nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of obstruction of a criminal investigation involving a health care offense.
