The owner of two California-based hospice companies, along with his biller and consultant, have been sentenced for their respective roles in a scheme that the Department of Justice says resulted in the theft of $9 million from Medicare in false and fraudulent claims for hospice services.
According to a news release, Gayk Akhsharumov, 40, of Glendale, California, the manager and beneficial owner of San Gabriel Hospice and Palliative Care Inc. (San Gabriel) and Broadway Hospice Inc., was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $9,185,211 in restitution. Akhsharumov’s biller and consultant, also of Glendale, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $3,688,050 in restitution.
According to court documents, from around January 2018 through May 2021, Akhsharumov concealed his ownership and control over the hospice entities from Medicare, inserted nominee owners, paid kickbacks to patient recruiters and profited from the scheme.
In April 2020, after San Gabriel had ceased operations, Akhsharumov used the company to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 relief funds. Akhsharumov submitted or caused the submission of fraudulent loan applications to the Small Business Administration for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan and to a financial institution for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, for which San Gabriel received $50,000. He also stole approximately $91,483 in funds deposited into San Gabriel’s bank account through the Provider Relief Fund program.
During the scheme, Sarkisyan submitted false and fraudulent Medicare enrollment forms for San Gabriel, falsely identifying a straw owner as the sole owner and manager and concealing the actual owners and managers. As a result, San Gabriel submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, which resulted in Medicare paying approximately $3,668,050 to San Gabriel, of which $3,180,677 was paid after Sarkisyan submitted the false enrollment applications.
Akhsharumov pleaded guilty on March 13, 2023, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Sarkisyan pleaded guilty on April 3, 2023, to conspiracy to defraud the United States.