A former nurse practitioner from Butte has been sentenced to five years in prison for health care fraud. Tristan Ashley Svejkovsky, 41, was also ordered to pay $613,108 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release following her prison term. The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich.

Svejkovsky pleaded guilty in August 2024 to charges of health care fraud and using a registration number issued to another person. U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided over the case and allowed Svejkovsky to self-report to the U.S. Marshals Service.

The government alleged that Svejkovsky's nursing license was suspended by the Montana Board of Nursing on April 1, 2022. Despite this suspension, she continued prescribing controlled substances under her own name until June 2022 when contacted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Svejkovsky then surrendered her DEA registration but continued illegal activities using a friend's DEA registration number.

According to court documents, Svejkovsky falsely billed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana for vitamin B-12 injections that never occurred, leading to fraudulent claims totaling approximately $62 million. She received $613,108 from these false claims by manipulating billing units for each injection.

Her fraudulent activities persisted even after her license suspension through backdated claims submitted monthly until May 2022. In one instance, she claimed $15 million per injection for a new patient.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with investigations conducted by the DEA and FBI.