The Alleged Mastermind of a $2 Billion U.S. Telemedicine Scam Is Enjoying the Luxury Life in Russia

This translation was provided by OCCRP

Between 2015 and 2022, a criminal group used dozens of pharmacies across the United States to bill medical insurance companies a staggering $2 billion for fraudulent prescriptions. The group collected over $758 million, laundering vast sums through offshore accounts before distributing the profits among themselves or reinvesting them in their operation. Fifteen people were sentenced in California for their roles in the scheme and seven pleaded guilty in federal court, with some later receiving ten-year prison sentences.

But the man prosecutors identify as the group’s ringleader, 34-year-old Los Angeles-born Brian Sutton, has not been tried. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn describes the indicted Sutton as “at large,” and a felony case against him in California remains active.

IStories tracked him down in Russia. In a country under the cloud of war and dictatorship, he is living a life of unabashed luxury. His assets there include nearly two dozen Mercedes Benz cars and several other luxury vehicles, a villa in an exclusive area near Moscow (and another owned by a family member), several businesses, and even a stake in an MMA club tied to a member of Russian parliament whose family is considered close to Chechen strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

“The American justice system will be unable to reach Sutton in Russia,” says Ilya Shumanov, the former director of the local chapter of Transparency International. “There is no extradition treaty between the U.S. and Russia, and cooperation between law enforcement agencies remains exclusively in the area of ​​counterterrorism … The chance of his extradition to the United States is zero.” “The choice of Russia as a safe haven for international criminals is understandable and is nothing particularly new,” Shumanov noted, citing the case of Rinaldo Nazzaro, the founder of a neo-Nazi paramilitary group who relocated to Russia in the late 2010s.

Sutton and members of his family did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Department of Justice, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, and the Russian Interior Ministry also did not reply.

“Mutant pharmacies”

Sutton’s name, and the operation he allegedly led, first came to light in California in 2015, when a CBS news employee noticed that his medical insurance company had paid a shocking $44,000 for a one-month supply of a nutritional supplement.

The Los Angeles pharmacy that filled the prescription and submitted the claim was owned by Sutton’s family, as CBS Evening News reported that June. When confronted there by a producer, Sutton ignored questions and shut the door.

Eventually, the authorities caught on. A 2020 California felony complaint alleged that the group owned five Los Angeles-area pharmacies. It described them as “mutant pharmacies” because they functioned as “mills for fulfilling fraudulent prescriptions for pain creams and durable medical equipment.”

“Many of the pharmacies were not stocked like normal pharmacies,” the complaint read. “The purchase of over-the-counter drugs was so rare that at one location the employees were unable to work the cash register.”

To feed these mills, prosecutors alleged, the conspirators ran an aggressive call center that harassed ordinary citizens with dozens of unsolicited calls, deceiving them into believing they were speaking with their own doctors or insurers. They then used the information they obtained to issue high-cost prescriptions, bombarding unwitting victims with shipments of unwanted medical gear and pain creams they had never requested. Fifteen co-conspirators eventually pleaded guilty, admitting to running a massive statewide scam and defrauding insurance companies of about $40 million.

A later federal case, prosecuted in Brooklyn, New York, covered what prosecutors described as a wider-ranging and more ambitious iteration of the scheme, tallying the much larger amount of nearly $2 billion in fraudulent medical bills, of which over $758 million was paid out.

The sophisticated operation involved calling patients to offer prescription medications at little to no cost, recruiting doctors to review nonexistent telemedicine visits, and billing insurance companies for drugs that in some cases were not even delivered. The conspirators bought many dozens of pharmacies across the country, expanding into states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Alabama. To avoid U.S. law enforcement, they set up call centers overseas, including in Russia.

Seven people ultimately pleaded guilty and were convicted for their roles in the operation. But not Sutton, who was out of reach of authorities.

A luxury life in Russia

The U.S. Department of Justice describes the group behind the telemedicine fraud as a “Moscow-based criminal organization.” Indeed, Russian land records and leaked databases show that Sutton and his family were establishing themselves in the country by 2019.

That year, leaked data from the Russian road police shows, Sutton bought and registered a Range Rover and a Rolls Royce Wraith in Russia, the first luxury cars of what would ultimately become an impressive fleet. According to a list of Sutton’s assets obtained by reporters, his collection ultimately included six BMWs, two more Rolls Royces, and 23 Mercedes-Benz vehicles produced over a 36-year span.

Also in 2019, a 64-year–old relative, David Sutton — presumably Brian’s father — purchased a luxurious villa near the Russian capital, according to land registry records. Nearly 600 square meters in size, the home includes a large private formal garden and a guest house on the property.

It is part of Barvikha 21, an “elite guarded cottage settlement” whose homes were built “in the style of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.” Located in the elite Rublevka area to the west of Moscow, and adjoining a 20-hectare forested recreation area, the development is just five kilometers from Putin’s infamous residence at Novo Ogarevo.

Over the next few years, three members of the Sutton family — Brian, David, and a woman named Mila Sutton — listed the address as their residence, according to a leaked database. (Both David and Mila Sutton were also indicted for the medical insurance fraud scheme in California, but neither appears ever to have been arrested or tried. Neither responded to requests for comment.)

But Brian Sutton had ambitions for a larger footprint in Barvikha 21. In 2025, he bought another villa in the same development, combining its territory with an adjacent plot he acquired on which the existing villa had been demolished. His property there now stretches over more than 6,500 square meters, nearly the size of a regulation football field.

Meanwhile, the Russian commercial register shows, Sutton had founded a call center called Well Connect in Moscow in 2019. Though its website is now defunct, the company’s page in the Russian social network Vkontakte is still available.

“We do marketing in the sphere of medicine,” it reads, “moving diagnostic methods and the treatment of clients in a better direction.” According to leaks of Russian tax information, Sutton earned 125 million rubles ($1.6 million) from the company in 2020–2021.

Brian Sutton also tried his hand in the Russian coal-trading business. In 2019, he founded Coal Trade, a Moscow company that, according to its website, included among its partners some of the largest Russian steel manufacturing and mining groups, such as Evraz and its coal business, Raspadskaya. Sutton retained his 90 percent stake in Coal Trade until late 2022, after which it was acquired by a firm whose ultimate owners are unknown. The Evraz plants and Raspadskaya were sanctioned by the United States in 2024.

The available financial data shows that Coal Trade made a profit of about $4.4 million in 2021 and $1.6 million in 2022, but its business started collapsing after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that year.

In November 2022, Sutton acquired Relaxzon, a small fitness and spa center in the village of Gorchakovo on the outskirts of Moscow.

United Russia Fighters

The full story of Brian Sutton’s relationship with Russia is unknown. According to leaked records, David Sutton is listed as being born in the Soviet Union, while Brian was born in Los Angeles and holds U.S. citizenship. Both men received Israeli citizenship in 2017. Brian also got a Russian passport in 2022.

Beyond that, Brian Sutton seems to have a connection to Chechnya, a republic ruled with an iron fist by strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov that is barely reachable even for Russian federal law enforcement.

Sutton’s first known listed place of residence in Russia, according to a police database, was an address in Argun, a town not far from the Chechen capital of Grozny. Several subsequent entries also associate a Grozny address with him, while identifying another address in Moscow as his residence.

Corporate records show that in June 2022 he acquired a 10-percent stake in United Russian Fighters (URF), an MMA club and fighting team tied to Bekkhan Agayev, a member of the Russian Parliament with the ruling United Russia party.

On its Instagram account, the team describes Agayev as one of its “founders,” calling him “a true patriot of Russia who makes a significant contribution to our country’s development every day.” The account also notes that he continues to support the team. 

(Agayev does not have a personal stake in the company behind URF, since members of parliament are prohibited from conducting business. A 40 percent share is owned by his son Deni.)

As previously reported by IStories, URF is active in providing support for the Russian military in its war on Ukraine.

Agayev, who has been sanctioned by the United States since 2022, comes from a family that is considered close to Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman head of Chechnya.

Kadyrov recorded a personal birthday greeting for Agayev’s father, Vakha, for his 60th birthday in 2013, calling him a “dear brother,” and also awarded him the title of “Honorary Citizen of the Republic.” That same year, a street was named after him in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan. Vakha Agayev, who died of COVID in 2020, ran a business that traded in Chechen oil.

Bekkhan Agayev did not respond to questions about the nature of his relationship with Sutton. His son also did not reply.

But Shumanov, the former Transparency International director, said that in the context of modern Russia, protecting one’s property rights or “avoiding pressure from security forces” was “virtually impossible.”

“There’s a high probability that the property and assets that Sutton acquired in Russia will [eventually] go to his influential Russian friends,” Shumanov added. “If he decides to leave Russia, I would venture to guess that many surprises await him. The FBI has a long list of cases of arresting individuals on the U.S. wanted list in other countries.”