Medicare Fraudster Sentenced In $14M LA County Hospice Scheme

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Burbank man was sentenced Tuesday to federal prison for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare out of at least $14 million via hospice and diagnostic testing services that were often never provided.

Alex Alexsanian, 48, — also known as “Samvel” and “Samo" — pleaded guilty in January to one count of money laundering conspiracy. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to two years and three months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $3 million derived from the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

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Alexsanian directed a foreign national to open a radiology clinic and acquire Medicare provider Console Hospice in Van Nuys. The co-conspirator then provided him control of those companies and their bank accounts and the foreign national's personal bank accounts, according to prosecutors.

The foreign national has since left the U.S., according to prosecutors.

Alexsanian and his co-conspirators filed fraudulent claims to Medicare for services never rendered, prosecutors said.

Co-defendant Sophia Shaklian, 38, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in November to health care fraud and was sentenced to nearly three years behind bars.

Shaklian and her co-conspirators filed the claims through seven hospice companies around Los Angeles County, prosecutors said.

"Shaklian and her co-schemers used the information of Medicare beneficiaries, and checked beneficiaries’ Medicare eligibility to knowingly and willfully submit fraudulent claims to Medicare on behalf of beneficiaries who did not need the services, had never received the services, and were not familiar with the fraudulent hospice and diagnostic testing providers, with the intent to defraud Medicare into reimbursing the sham providers for those claimed services," prosecutors said.

The companies received more than $14 million for the claims, prosecutors said.

Shaklian laundered Medicare funds by transferring them to accounts in the name of a fake identity, documents show.

The defendants laundered the Medicare reimbursements they received, as well as funds deposited into their accounts, through the phony identity, and used them to, among other things, buy more than $6 million in gold bars and coins, prosecutors said.

City News Service contributed to this report.