Valley Man Admits To Laundering $4.6M For Sham Hospice Medicare Scam

LOS ANGELES, CA — A San Fernando Valley man pleaded guilty Monday to laundering over $4.6 million as part of a scheme to defraud Medicare of nearly $16 million by setting up sham hospice companies, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Mihran Panosyan, 46, of Winnetka, took part in a plan with others to run a series of sham hospice companies, impersonating Russian and Ukrainian nationals and using those identities to open bank accounts and sign leases as the purported hospice owners, and submitting false claims to Medicare for services that weren’t medically necessary or provided, authorities said.

Panosyan — also known as Mike Hope — pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to a charge of money laundering as part of a plea agreement. He was ordered to pay over $4 million in restitution and forfeit money and property, including a 2019 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT63 S, according to court documents obtained by Patch.

He's set to be sentenced on Sept. 8. He faces up to 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

Panosyan's co-defendant, Petros Fichidzhyan, pleaded guilty in February to charges of health care fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The other three defendants in the case are set to stand trial beginning July 29. The five codefendants including a married couple and several cousins, according to court documents.

Their scheme had three parts: Three of the co-defendants used the identities of foreign nationals no longer living in the U.S. to operate several sham hospice companies. They maintained fraudulent ID documents, bank accounts, checkbooks, and credit and debit cards in the names of those people, according to prosecutors.

The co-defendants then submitted false claims to Medicare for hospice services for patents who were not terminally ill and who never requested nor received those services.

"As a result of Fichidzhyan and his coschemers’ false and fraudulent claims for hospice services that were neither medically necessary nor rendered, Medicare paid the Sham Hospices approximately
$15,992,154," according to court documents.

Then, the codefendants laundered the proceeds: Panosyan transferred proceeds of the Medicare fraud between accounts in the names of the purported foreign owners, the sham hospices, and other shell corporations, laundering more than $4.6 million in fraudulently obtained funds that he used to purchase real estate, pay for private school for his child and more, according to prosecutors.