A Farmington woman has admitted guilt in a case involving health care fraud and public corruption. Helen Zervas, 57, waived her right to an indictment and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sarah F. Russell in Bridgeport. The announcement was made by Marc H. Silverman, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Anish Shukla, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI, and Harry T. Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England.
Zervas, an optometrist who owned Family Eye Care in Bristol, was involved with Medicaid and Medicare as a provider. Court documents reveal that between October 2015 and January 2020, she submitted false claims to these programs. Specifically, from September 2016 to January 2020, she filed over 300 false claims to Medicaid and more than 30 to Medicare for treatments that were either not provided or unnecessary.
In 2020, during an audit of her Medicaid billings by the State of Connecticut, Zervas conspired with a senior official from the State’s Office of Policy and Management and a Connecticut State Representative to disrupt the audit process. In return for payments from Family Eye Care, the senior official agreed to influence other state employees regarding the ongoing audit.
Zervas has pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud with a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment and one count of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right with a potential twenty-year sentence.
She is currently released pending sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.
The investigation continues under the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan N. Francis and David E. Novick are prosecuting the case.