FIVE INDIVIDUALS AND FOUR CORPORATIONS PLEAD GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT HEALTH CARE FRAUD, HEALTH CARE FRAUD, AND CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT
MONEY LAUNDERING
ARTEM GASPARYAN, age 46, and ANAHIT PETROSYAN, age 32, both of Metairie, LA; VADIM MYSAK, age 24, of Kenner, LA; and ANNA AIVAZOVA, age 43, of Sherman Oaks, CA pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. ARAM KHLGATIAN, age 55, of Metairie, LA pleaded guilty to health care fraud. HEALTH PLUS CONSULTING, INC., SATURN MEDICAL GROUP, and NEW MILLENIUM MEDICAL GROUP, INC., all Louisiana corporations; as well as SOLO LUCKY CLAIMS PROCESSING, INC., a California corporation also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Additionally, MYSAK pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit money laundering. All pleas were entered before U. S. District Court Judge Lance M. Africk, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten..
According to the superseding indictment, all of the defendants participated in a criminal organization for the purpose of fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid. Recruiters were used to find patients to bring to the indicted medical clinics for medical tests that were not performed and not medically necessary. The Clinics’ patients were moved between the various clinics to repeatedly perform the same unnecessary tests. According to the superseding indictment, the doctors gave the patients prescriptions for drugs, usually narcotics, for their cooperation, and the recruiters were provided cash and prescription drugs for their services.
Thereafter, bills for the false and unnecessary services were submitted to Medicaid and Medicare by SOLO LUCKY, a medical claims processing and billing company owned by AIVAZOVA, that worked with most of the indicted New Orleans-area clinics. In return, AIVAZOVA was paid a fee for each amount billed.
Once Medicare and Medicaid paid the clinics, MYSAK conspired with another individual to engage in a series of financial transactions designed to disguise the fact that they had obtained the money unlawfully and hide the funds from Medicare and Medicaid. In particular, MYSAK purchased used medical equipment on behalf of the medical clinics from a California medical equipment company. The prices MYSAK paid for the used medical equipment was almost always significantly more than the value of the medical equipment. Often brand new medical equipment could have been purchased for much less than MYSAK and the medical clinics paid for the used equipment. MYSAK also paid exorbitant repair fees to supposedly repair the already outdated equipment when the repairs never actually happened. In total, the clinics, through MYSAK and others, paid the California co-conspirator over $2,700,000 between January 2009 and April 2011.
Count 1 of the superseding indictment, health care fraud, carries a possible maximum sentence of ten (10) years imprisonment. Count 43 of the superseding indictment, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, carries a possible maximum sentence of five (5) years imprisonment. Count 44 of the superseding indictment, conspiracy to commit money laundering, carries a possible maximum sentence of ten (10) years imprisonment. Sentencing has been scheduled for April 11, 2012.
The investigation was conducted by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; and the Louisiana Department of Justice, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorneys Patrice Harris Sullivan, G. Dall Kammer, and Jordan Ginsberg.
