Who is Violetta Mailyan? California doctor sentenced to 15 years for $45 million Botox fraud, bought a Cybertruck, $12,000 crossbow and five properties

Violetta Mailyan, a 45-year-old doctor from Glendale, California, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for defrauding Medicare of more than $45 million through fraudulent claims for Botox injections. She used her medical practice, Healthy Way Medical Center, to bill the federal health insurance program for thousands of injections that were “medically unnecessary and never provided,” the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Friday, October 30, 2026.

Mailyan was sentenced on Thursday, October 29, after being convicted by a jury in May 2026 of nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of obstruction of a criminal investigation of a health care offense.

What we know about Violetta Mailyan and how did she defraud Medicare

Mailyan owned and operated Healthy Way Medical Center in Glendale, California. Medicare reimburses medical providers for Botox injections when necessary to treat documented cases of chronic migraines. As per the DOJ, she “billed and received payments for thousands of injections” that were never administered or the ones that were provided only for cosmetic purposes, or were given to patients whose physicians did not refer them for migraine treatment. Even when her clinic was closed, she generated bills for thousands of injections, which were worth more than $19 million.


She also submitted claims for Botox services while she was traveling across the US and abroad, including trips to Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania and New York.

In one example highlighted by the Justice Department, Mailyan billed more than $200,000 for purported Botox services while she was relaxing in Cabo, Mexico.

The agency also shared a photograph from her phone, which was sent from the beach in Cabo, and was taken on the same day she billed Medicare $34,560 for services supposedly provided in Glendale, California.

How did Mailyan try to cover up the Medicare fraud?

When she realized that federal investigators were after her, she falsified medical records and forged Medicare beneficiaries' signatures, “including for a man who was in federal prison during the time Mailyan claimed to have provided treatment.”

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Mailyan then submitted the fabricated records to federal investigators, intending to make it appear that she had treated patients she had never actually seen and to throw investigators off her trail.

The court took note of the scale and duration of the fraud while sentencing her. It said the scheme was “truly breathtaking in scope and shocking in its duration” and called her actions “almost unbelievable in their brazenness”.

Luxury purchases made with Medicare fraud proceeds

Mailyan used the money from the scheme to purchase luxury goods and property, including a 17th-century crossbow worth $12,000 and a painting for $3,000. The jury also discovered that “Mailyan used the fraud proceeds to purchase two Tesla vehicles, including a Cybertruck, and five pieces of California real estate,” the agency wrote.

Along with the 15-year prison sentence, the court ordered the immediate forfeiture of more than $16.02 million worth of property seized from Mailyan. The assets included real estate, personal property, securities and bank funds.

She was also ordered to pay $32,904,049.41 in restitution to Medicare. The Justice Department said it would “vigorously pursue the return of these stolen funds”.