LOS ANGELES

A pharmacy owner will be sentenced in February after being found guilty last week for her role in a Medicare fraud scheme involving $1.3 million in claims for prescription drugs, according to officials.

After a two-day trial, Tamar Tatarian, 39, of Pasadena, was convicted of one count of health care fraud and two counts of wire fraud.  

Sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 25, 2019 before U.S. District Judge John F. Walter of the Central District of California, who presided over the trial.  Tatarian was the owner of Akhtamar Pharmacy in Pasadena.

According to evidence presented at trial, from approximately October 2015 through approximately October 2017, Tatarian engaged in a scheme involving the submission of fraudulent claims to Medicare Part D plan sponsors for prescription drugs that Akhtamar Pharmacy never ordered from wholesalers, and thus never dispensed to Medicare beneficiaries. 

Tatarian attempted to conceal the fraud through the creation of fake invoices, reflecting wholesale drug purchases by Akhtamar Pharmacy which had, in fact, never taken place. 

As a result of this scheme, Tatarian through Akhtamar Pharmacy submitted claims to Medicare for more than $1.3 million in prescription drugs that she never purchased or dispensed to patients, the evidence showed.