Federal officers introduced that 5 individuals have been arrested this week in Los Angeles over an alleged scheme to bilk the Medicare program of greater than $15 million.
The U.S. Division of Justice stated three of the San Fernando Valley residents who have been arrested — Petros Fichidzhyan, also called Peter; Juan Carlos Esparza; and Karpis Srapyan, also called Tony Levy — have been accused of working “sham hospice corporations” and handing over fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice providers.
In an indictment unsealed this week, federal prosecutors alleged the three had sought Medicare funds for sufferers who weren’t terminally unwell and hadn’t been cared for on the sham hospices. In some instances, the boys claimed that the identical affected person had acquired care from greater than one of many faux hospices, prosecutors alleged.
As a part of the alleged scheme, the three defendants misappropriated the figuring out info of docs to say these physicians had deemed hospice providers crucial for sufferers, federal prosecutors stated.
Additionally they allegedly used the names and Social Safety numbers of Russian and Ukrainian residents who had left the U.S. to open financial institution accounts and signal leases, indicating that the “impersonated identities” have been the house owners of the hospice corporations that they in reality managed, in keeping with the federal indictment.
The alleged scheme occurred roughly between February 2019 and January 2023, the indictment stated. Two different San Fernando Valley residents — Susanna Harutyunyan and her partner Mihran Panosyan, who was also called Mike Hope — have been accused of working with the opposite defendants to launder the cash.
Federal officers stated that if convicted, all 5 of the defendants would face a most penalty of no less than 40 years of jail. Fichidzhyan, Esparza, and Srapyan would face an extra necessary minimal of two years in jail for alleged identification theft.
An legal professional representing Fichidzhyan didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The Occasions was unable to instantly establish representatives for the opposite defendants in courtroom filings.
The case is being investigated by the FBI and the Workplace of Inspector Common on the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers. Federal officers stated the arrests have been half of a bigger effort to crack down on hospice fraud within the L.A. space.
A Occasions investigation three and a half years in the past discovered “audacious, widespread fraud” within the hospice trade. A state audit in 2022 echoed these findings, concluding that weak oversight had opened the door to “large-scale fraud and abuse.” It warned of “hospice businesses utilizing presumably stolen identities of medical personnel.”
