Former Office Manager of Boston Dental Practice Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud, Identity Theft and Tax Fraud

BOSTON – The former office manager of a Boston-based dental practice pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to charges of bank fraud and tax fraud stemming from her embezzlement of funds from her former employer.

Yuliya Vaysglus, a/k/a Julia Vaysglus, 36, formerly of Hopkinton, now residing in Campbell, Calif., pleaded guilty to eight counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and three counts of filing false tax returns. U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Nov. 17, 2020.

From 2009 until she was terminated in February 2015, Vaysglus was the office manager of a Boston-area dental practice where her duties included tracking client invoices, depositing insurance payments into the practice’s bank account, and recording those deposits for accounting purposes. Between 2009 and December 2014, Vaysglus embezzled more than $348,000 from the dental practice by diverting to herself at least 276 checks from various insurance companies for services rendered to patients. As part of the scheme, Vaysglus made the checks payable to herself, forged the signature of the dental firm’s owner on the checks, and deposited them into her bank account. Vaysglus failed to report the embezzled funds on her federal tax returns.

The charge of bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of $1 million. The charge of filing a false tax return provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence that must be served consecutively to any other sentence, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph W. Cronin, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Boston; and Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara M. Bloom and Victor A. Wild of Lelling’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit are prosecuting the case.