Brookline couple deny they stole $53,000 in health benefits meant for poor

By John R. Ellement, Globe staff

A wealthy Brookline couple pleaded not guilty today to charges they stole $53,000 worth of medical coverage from the state at a time when they owned doughnut shops, a jewelry store, a Boston office building, and a home in one of the area’s most expensive communities.

Joseph and Jila Youshaei allegedly claimed they were earning just $475 a week between 1999 and 2005 when in fact they were worth, on paper, millions of dollars, according to court records filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office.

The couple appeared together for arraignment this morning in Suffolk Superior Court. They left without speaking to a Globe reporter. Outside the courtroom, their attorney, William E. Gens, said the couple was never as wealthy as prosecutors allege between 1999 and 2005.

Gens said the Youshaeis were involved in a number of businesses during the six years in question, but those businesses failed. He also said the couple purchased their home on Chestnut Hill Avenue in Brookline – currently assessed at $896,200 – with no money down as did others during recent years.

“It’s a sensitive issue during today’s economic climate,’’ Gens said outside the courtroom of the allegations that his clients stole health benefits meant for the poor. “But it isn’t quite as it is made out to be.’’

He said that between 1999 and 2005, the couple was involved in a number of businesses, many of which failed.

“With regard to the issue of their wealth, that is perhaps quite a bit overblown,’’ he said. “The Youshaeis had a number of business interests, but many of them have been failures, and many have been things that never went anywhere, and many of them are no longer in existence.’’

The couple’s use of MassHealth was discovered by investigators for Auditor Joseph DeNucci, who handed the case over to Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office for criminal prosecution.

They are both charged with two counts of procurement fraud and larceny over $250 for allegedly obtaining health coverage for themselves and their three children. Gens said the two of the family members had heart problems.

Prosecutors and Gens had agreed the couple should be released on personal recognizance, but the facts underneath the charges angered Trial Magistrate Gary D. Wilson, who said white-collar crime damages the community just as much as a drug dealer does and that he found the allegations against the couple "disturbing.''

He also noted that the couple allegedly stole $53,000 in health benefits and walked out of the courthouse, while he often is asked to hold someone on $10,000 cash bail when they are charged with selling just $20 worth of cocaine.

The Yousheais are US citizens, Gens said. Wilson ordered them not to leave the country without getting approval in advance form the attorney general’s office. They are due back in court Dec. 18.

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