Brooklyn banker sentenced to 18 months for laundering $8M in fraud proceeds

A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for conspiring to launder more than $8 million in health care fraud proceeds through a U.S. bank on behalf of a transnational criminal organization, the Justice Department announced.

Renat Abramov, 37, a former relationship manager at a U.S. bank branch in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, used his position to assist a foreign-based criminal organization that spearheaded what the Justice Department called the largest health care fraud case it has ever prosecuted, as uncovered through Operation Gold Rush, according to court documents.

“The Fraud Division is committed to holding accountable anyone who abuses the U.S. financial system to facilitate fraud,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “This sentence makes one thing clear: anyone who helps fraudsters conceal the proceeds of their crimes can expect to face serious consequences. American taxpayers will be protected from those who try to launder criminal proceeds through our banking system.”

The organization, based in Russia and elsewhere, orchestrated a multibillion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme to steal from Medicare and private health insurance companies by submitting fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment through dozens of medical equipment companies, the Justice Department said. The companies were owned on paper by nominee owners, many of whom were not lawfully present in the United States, in an arrangement designed to disguise the companies’ true beneficial ownership and control by the foreign-based organization, according to court documents.

Abramov served as a concierge banker for participants in the scheme, according to the Justice Department. He opened bank accounts for the nominee owners of several medical equipment companies, which were then used to deposit more than $8 million in health care fraud proceeds. The nominee owners and their handlers later transferred the money into offshore accounts. Abramov also assisted the nominee owners with wire transactions and provided information about the status of their accounts.

Abramov pleaded guilty in February 2026 to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the FBI. Homeland Security Investigations New York assisted in Abramov’s arrest. Assistant Chiefs Shankar Ramamurthy and Kevin Lowell, Acting Assistant Chief Sara E. Porter, and Trial Attorney Leonid Sandlar of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

The Justice Department announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7, saying the division is focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The department’s fraud enforcement efforts support President Donald Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government initiative chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance and aimed at eliminating fraud, waste and abuse in federal benefit programs, according to the Justice Department.

The Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, made up of nine strike forces operating in federal districts nationwide, 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 said. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, is also taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes.