A federal grand jury in Massachusetts indicted a 33-year-old man for allegedly laundering money from a $1.3 billion health-care fraud scheme, federal officials announced.
Erekle Gugava, a Georgian citizen living unlawfully in the United States, has been charged with one count of money laundering conspiracy.
Prosecutors claim Gugava worked as a financial conduit for a global criminal organization located in Russia and other nations. The ring is linked to the Department of Justice’s largest health-care fraud case to date, Operation Gold Rush, a multi-agency investigation.
“Fraud networks cannot function without people willing to launder and transmit their proceeds—and deterring those facilitators is essential to safeguarding taxpayer resources,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “As charged in this indictment, Gugava allegedly assisted in the facilitation of a massive fraud on the American people by moving stolen funds through domestic and international financial channels. “This indictment underscores our determination to hold all participants in fraudulent networks accountable for their actions.”
According to court documents, Gugava claimed ownership of ND Medical Solutions LLC, a Pennsylvania-based durable medical equipment supplier, between February and July 2025. During those five months, the business filed more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent claims with Medicare, supplemental insurers, and employer-sponsored health plans. Insurers paid out approximately $6.5 million for these claims.
Investigators believe the scheme exploited stolen personal information from people across Massachusetts and the country, including the elderly and disabled. Victims discovered their identities had been compromised after getting insurance statements for medical equipment they never ordered, from a company they had never heard of, and prescribed by doctors they had never met.
Gugava allegedly opened multiple corporate bank accounts as the sole authorized signer for insurance reimbursement checks. Because the initial payouts came from legitimate health care programs and insurers, the criminal cash appeared real until it was moved to offshore bank accounts linked to the worldwide network.
The Justice Department, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the FBI, HHS-OIG, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Department of Labor all announced the indictment.
If convicted, Gugava could face up to 20 years in federal prison.
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