ISTANBUL

Two pharmacy owners in the US are sentenced for an $18 million COVID-19 health care fraud and money laundering scheme, the Justice Department said Monday.

Peter Khaim, 44, of Forest Hills, New York, was sentenced Monday to eight years and one month in prison, while his brother and co-defendant Arkadiy Khaimov, 41, also of Forest Hills, was sentenced on April 3 to six years in prison, it said in a statement.

The duo pleaded guilty in November 2022 to conspiracy to commit money laundering charges.

Khaim and Khaimov used the New York-area pharmacies to submit millions of dollars in false and fraudulent claims to federal health insurance program Medicare and then laundered the proceeds during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the statement.

"To conceal over $18 million of their criminal proceeds, Khaim, Khaimov, and their co-conspirators funneled money through several shell companies, including sham pharmacy wholesale companies designed to look like legitimate wholesalers," it added.

The duo sent the funds from the pharmacy bank accounts they controlled to the sham wholesale companies, which were then sent to companies in China for distribution to individuals in Uzbekistan.