LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Four San Fernando Valley residents have been sentenced to federal prison for their roles in defrauding Medicare of nearly $16 million through sham hospice companies and laundering the fraudulent proceeds, according to court papers obtained Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Those sentenced in Los Angeles federal court were:
– Juan Carlos Esparza, 33, of Valley Village, who was sentenced Monday to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1.8 million, and Susanna Harutyunyan, 39, of Winnetka, sentenced the same day to 15 months and ordered to pay restitution of $2.8 million;
– Karpis Srapyan, 35, of Winnetka, sentenced in October to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3.2 million; and
– Mihran Panosyan, 47, of Winnetka, sentenced in September to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $4.6 million, according to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
In addition, as previously reported, Petros Fichidzhyan, 44, of Granada Hills, was sentenced in May to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $17.1 million, according to the Justice Department.
Court documents show that the defendants schemed to bill Medicare for hospice services that were not medically necessary and never provided. The schemers controlled hospice entities and used foreign nationals’ personal information to conceal the plan, using the personal information to, among other things, open bank accounts, submit information to Medicare and sign property leases, the DOJ said.
The defendants also controlled and used cell phones in the names of the foreign nationals in furtherance of the scheme. In total, Medicare paid the sham hospices nearly $16 million, according to the DOJ.
Fichidzhyan, Esparza and Srapyan worked with others, including co-defendants Harutyunyan and Panosyan, to launder the fraudulent proceeds. As part of the money laundering scheme, the defendants maintained fraudulent identification documents and other documents associated with the sham hospices, as well as bank documents, checkbooks and credit and debit cards in the names of purported foreign owners, according to the DOJ.
After defrauding Medicare, the DOJ said, the defendants moved the funds between various assets and accounts, including bank accounts in the names of shell companies, to conceal the scheme.
In July, Esparza pleaded guilty to health care fraud and transactional money laundering, Harutyunyan pleaded guilty to transactional money laundering and Srapyan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and transactional money laundering.
In June, Panosyan pleaded guilty to concealment money laundering. In February, Fichidzhyan pleaded guilty to health care fraud, aggravated identity theft and concealment money laundering.
At Fichidzhyan’s sentencing, the court preliminarily ordered the forfeiture of two homes bought with fraud proceeds. The government has also seized $2.9 million from bank accounts associated with the fraud, according to the DOJ.