A Russian Doctor Whose Wife Disappeared Is Charged With Insurance Fraud
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: November 2, 2007
A Russian doctor whose wife left their Upper East Side apartment to walk a dog in March 2003, and was found drowned in the East River two months later, was arrested yesterday and charged with insurance fraud.
Prosecutors said the doctor, Alexander Aronov, had prescribed unnecessary back treatment — physical therapy and chiropractic services — for an undercover officer who claimed to be an employee of Verizon. The doctor then billed Verizon $6,947 for the unnecessary treatment, prosecutors said. Although the charges were not linked to the still-unsolved death of Dr. Aronov’s wife, Svetlana, a prosecutor at the doctor’s arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan yesterday made the connection while arguing for $25,000 bail, a high amount given how much he is accused of stealing.
The prosecutor, Hope Korenstein, told Justice Laura Ward that Dr. Aronov was a flight risk because he had been wiring large amounts of money overseas to France, Russia, Denmark and Georgia. She said Dr. Aronov’s “character and reputation” warranted high bail because, among other things, his entire career had been spent working at “medical mills” and because he had “refused to cooperate with law enforcement” in the investigation into his wife’s death.
The prosecutor’s assertions brought a strong rebuke from Dr. Aronov’s lawyer, Douglas Nadjari, who denied the fraud charges and accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office of conducting a vendetta against his client because investigators were frustrated that they had been unable to solve the mystery of Ms. Aronov’s death.
“To say that he’s being punished because he hasn’t cooperated with their investigation is just unconscionable,” Mr. Nadjari told Justice Ward. “The only thing colder than the district attorney’s investigation into this death is the way they’ve treated Dr. Aronov.”
Ms. Korenstein said the undercover officer was treated from October 2005 to March 2006. She said the officer went to Dr. Aronov with a clean bill of health and came out worse.
But Mr. Nadjari said Dr. Aronov had been entrapped by the officer, who lied, saying she was suffering from back pain.
Asked yesterday whether the investigation into Dr. Aronov’s medical practice was related to the investigation into his wife’s death, Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, replied, “It could be more than coincidence.”
The disappearance of Ms. Aronov, who was 44 and a rare-book dealer, is one of the more mysterious episodes in New York City’s recent history. She left the family’s apartment building at 1175 York Avenue between East 63rd and East 64th Streets on March 3, 2003, to walk her father’s cocker spaniel. Her decomposed body was found May 6, floating under a pier behind the Water’s Edge Restaurant in Long Island City, Queens.
Her body had small bruises on both shins. A spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office said at the time that although the death was suspicious, investigators could not determine whether Ms. Aronov’s death was an accident, a suicide or a homicide.
Mr. Nadjari denied that his client had worked in medical mills, saying that he had trained as an oncologist and had many grateful cancer patients. He said Dr. Aronov had passed a lie detector test administered by the police, and he accused the district attorney’s office of “botching” the investigation into Ms. Aronov’s death.
He said that if Dr. Aronov had transferred money overseas, it was because his older daughter lives in Paris. He suggested that Svetlana Aronov’s family believed in Dr. Aronov’s innocence, saying that the doctor lived with his late wife’s parents and his 13-year-old daughter, who attends school in Manhattan.
Dr. Aronov, 49, was arrested yesterday outside his office at 36 East 38th Street. He pleaded not guilty to third-degree grand larceny, a felony that could bring up to seven years in prison, and health care fraud.
Justice Ward set bail at $15,000 after questioning the prosecutor about whether any further indictment, alleging a larger pattern of fraud, was planned. Ms. Korenstein said there were no such plans at the moment.
Dr. Aronov was not immediately able to post bail and remained in custody. His lawyer said that Dr. Aronov’s practice had suffered because investigators had scared off patients by executing a search warrant at his office and arresting his physical therapist.
The Aronovs grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, and were childhood sweethearts who had been married almost 25 years, Dr. Aronov said after his wife’s death.
