A Glendale doctor who billed Medicare more than $45 million for Botox injections that were never given, were purely cosmetic, or were never ordered by a patient's own doctor has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Violetta Mailyan, 45, of Glendale, California, was sentenced on Thursday, October 29, by U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera in Los Angeles, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced the sentence on Friday, October 30.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Oct. 30, 2026

Mailyan owned and operated Healthy Way Medical Center in Glendale, a clinic that presented itself as a beauty and cosmetic practice. According to court documents and the evidence presented at her trial, she billed and was paid for thousands of Botox injections that were never provided, were provided only for cosmetic purposes, or were given to patients whose primary care physicians had never referred them for treatment of chronic migraines.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Oct. 30, 2026

Why the billing broke Medicare's rules

Medicare, the federal health program that covers Americans aged 65 and older and many people with disabilities, reimburses doctors for Botox injections only when they are medically necessary to treat documented cases of chronic migraine. Cosmetic Botox is not covered. Prosecutors said Mailyan's clinic claimed the migraine-treatment billing codes anyway, turning a narrow medical benefit into what the Justice Department described as the engine of a fraud that ran for years. Case reporting on the indictment put the billing period at 2019 to 2025, with about $45.1 million billed and about $32.9 million actually paid by Medicare on the charged claims.

Billed on closed days — and from the beach in Cabo

The evidence showed that more than $19 million of the billing was for injections supposedly provided on days when the Glendale clinic was closed. Mailyan also billed for Botox injections on days when she was on vacation in Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania and New York. In one example cited by prosecutors, she billed more than $200,000 for Botox services supposedly provided to patients in California while she was in Mexico — including $34,560 billed on the very day a photograph on her own phone showed her on the beach in Cabo.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Oct. 30, 2026

Forged records, a patient in prison, and luxury spending

When Mailyan realised federal investigators were closing in, the Justice Department said, she falsified medical records and forged Medicare beneficiary signatures — including the signature connected to a man who was in federal prison at the time she claimed to have treated him — and submitted those records to investigators to throw them off her trail. The jury also found that she used the fraud proceeds to buy two Tesla vehicles, including a Cybertruck, and five pieces of California real estate. Prosecutors described other purchases made with stolen funds, including a $12,000 17th-century crossbow and a $3,000 painting.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Oct. 30, 2026

At sentencing, Judge Vera said Mailyan's fraud “was truly breathtaking in scope and shocking in its duration,” and that her actions were “almost unbelievable in their brazenness.” Alongside the 15-year prison term, the court ordered the immediate forfeiture of more than $16,029,742 in seized property — real property, personal property, securities and bank funds — and ordered her to pay $32,904,049.41 in restitution to Medicare. The Justice Department said the United States “will vigorously pursue the return of these stolen funds.”

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Oct. 30, 2026

The trial and the investigation

A six-day jury trial in downtown Los Angeles ended in May 2026 with Mailyan convicted of nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of obstruction of a criminal investigation of a health care offence. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the FBI. It was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Sandor Callahan and Jeffrey A. Crapko of the Justice Department Fraud Division's Health Care Fraud Section, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara Vavere of the Central District of California handling asset forfeiture.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Oct. 30, 2026

Background: a national health-care fraud crackdown

The Justice Department said its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program — nine strike forces working in federal districts across the country — has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007. The department created a dedicated Fraud Division on April 7, 2026, and says its work supports the administration's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance. MyNewsLA, an independent Los Angeles news outlet, reported the same sentence, the same forfeiture and restitution figures, and the same remarks from Judge Vera on Friday.

Source: MyNewsLA, Oct. 30, 2026

What happens next

Mailyan's sentence is now a final judgment of the federal court in Los Angeles. The immediate next steps are financial: the forfeiture of the seized property takes effect at once, and federal officials say they will pursue the full $32.9 million restitution owed to Medicare, which can include going after remaining assets. For Glendale and the wider Los Angeles Armenian, Punjabi and immigrant communities who use Medicare, the case is a warning the Justice Department has repeated throughout 2026: billing the program for treatment that never happened is treated as one of the most serious forms of federal fraud, and it ends in prison, not just repayment.