A federal court has sentenced the owner of a California home health care agency to 12 years in prison and ordered him to pay over $17 million in restitution for defrauding Medicare, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).  
 
Petros Fichidzhyan was sentenced on May 5, 2025, after he pleaded guilty to health care fraud, identity theft and money laundering. 
 
According to the DOJ, he received over $1 million in false claims payments through his home health company and obtained more than $16 million by opening fraudulent hospice companies and billing services that were not medically necessary and never provided. 
 
Fichidzhyan used personal identifying information from foreign nationals and the names of deceased doctors to run and cover up the scheme, the DOJ noted.
 
Read the full release at https://www.justice.gov/.