Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard 2010 Annual Report

Criminal Division (continued)
On September 14, 2007, Special Agents from the Attorney General’s Office conducted a search warrant at the “We Care Clinic” doctor’s
office in Phoenix where business owner Olena Kulakova posed as a physician. Ms. Kulakova would bill the AHCCCS program for those
patients that she would see while posing as a physician.
ined and treated patients, wrote
prescriptions using Balikian’s
name, signed off on visit notes
of patients she had seen and
generally practiced medicine.
Kulakova originally purchased
the “We Care Clinic” from
Balikian in May, 2006, and retained
Balikian as a contracted
staff physician. Both Kulakova
and Balikian examined and
treated the patients, and wrote
controlled substance prescriptions.
When Kulakova wrote
the prescriptions, she signed
Balikian’s name.
Both Balikian and Kulakova
were indicted on January 14,
2009. Kulakova was indicted on
charges of conspiracy, assisting
a criminal syndicate, fraudulent
schemes and artifices, theft,
money laundering in the second
degree and illegally conducting
an enterprise.
On July 14, 2009, Kulakova entered
into a plea agreement and
was sentenced to six months
in jail, five years probation,
and 300 hours of community
service. She was also ordered
to pay $5,000 in investigative
costs to the Medicaid Fraud
Control Unit. On July 31, 2009,
Balikian pleaded guilty to securing
the proceeds of an offense.
He was sentenced on Jan. 25,
2010, to six months probation,
ordered to pay $25,000 in
restitution to the Arizona Health
Care Cost Containment System
and pay $1,000 in investigative
costs to the Medicaid Fraud
Control Unit.
State vs. Nakesha Phillips
Nakesha Phillips was stealing
funds from a patient’s personal
bank account and left the
patient alone for over a week.
Shortly after these alleged
incidents, the patient died. On
June 16, 2009, Phillips was
indicted on charges of fraudulent
schemes and artifices,
theft and forgeries against a
Medicaid patient. On August
7, 2009, Phillips entered into
a plea agreement where she
pleaded guilty to forgery and
was sentenced to two and a half
years in prison.
Tucson Unit
State v. Ruth Sons
Between 2003 and 2008, Ruth
Sons embezzled $973,010
from the Tucson Museum of Art
(TMA), where she was employed
as a bookkeeper and accountant.
TMA is a local treasure
for Tucson and was brought
to the brink of bankruptcy and
closure by of Sons’ embezzlement
scheme. In August 2009,
she pleaded guilty to theft
and fraudulent schemes and
artifices.
Sons’ position as an accountant
gave her access to the museum’s
payroll, museum shop
deposits, and petty cash accounts.
For more than five years
she conducted an elaborate
embezzlement scheme.
The unit indicted Sons, and she
pleaded guilty to two class 2
felonies. She was sentenced to
five years in prison and ordered
to pay $973,010 in restitution.
State v. Calvin Ingram
Marana Police Department
Officer Calvin Ingram was
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard • 2010 Annual Report
22