Five individuals in California were arrested for allegedly running sham hospices and billing the Medicare program $15 million, most of which they then laundered to purchase real estate and vehicles.
Petros Fichidzhyan, 43, of Granada Hills, California; Juan Carlos Esparza, 32, of Valley Village, California; and Sarpis Srapyan, 34, of Van Nuys, California, are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a Department of Justice press release.
They allegedly operated several sham hospices that were falsely shown to be owned by foreign nationals but were, in fact, owned by the three defendants.
“The defendants allegedly used the foreign nationals’ identifying information to open bank accounts, to sign property leases, to make phone calls to Medicare, and submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice services,” the press release says.
The defendants committed identity theft by impersonating doctors for Medicare, saying that hospice care was needed for individuals who, in reality, were never terminally ill, nor did they receive any care in the sham hospices.
Two other defendants, Susanna Harutyunyan, 38, and Mihran Panosyan, 45, both of Winnetka, California, then allegedly laundered the proceeds. According to the DOJ, the five defendants are alleged to have spent the money on real estate and vehicles, among other things.
All defendants are charged with conspiracy to launder money and money laundering, and Mr. Fichidzhyan is also charged with making false statements. If convicted, all five face a maximum penalty of at least 40 years in prison.
The Justice Department’s Fraud Section, which investigates the case, has been investigating health care fraud since 2007. It has charged more than 5,400 defendants who collectively stole more than $27 billion from federal health care programs and private insurers.
Again, in California, a sleep clinic head was sentenced to 46 months in prison, according to a DOJ press release published on Thursday.
Jeremy Gober, 43, of Hanford, stole $587,000 from Medicare from 2016 to 2020. Through his sleep clinic, Got Sleep Inc., he submitted applications for funding sleep studies that were never performed. Sleep clinics perform diagnostic sleep studies to identify disorders like sleep apnea and narcolepsy. In total, he made $1.5 million worth of fraudulent claims to Medicare.
He falsely claimed his patients had been referred for sleep studies by physicians he had worked with. Medicare will not pay for a sleep study unless the patient is referred by a physician. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison for committing health care fraud and aggravated identity theft.
In May, a Nevada doctor was convicted of stealing $2 million from Medicare and Medicaid by writing fake prescriptions to a Michigan pharmacy.
Eduardo Abellana, 75, of Las Vegas, conspired with City Drugs, a Detroit, Michigan, pharmacy, to defraud the public health care system for patients he had not treated in exchange for kickbacks from the pharmacy, according to a DOJ press release.
The jury convicted Mr. Abellana of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States and receive kickbacks. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 25 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.