The owner of two California-based hospice companies and his consultant were sentenced Thursday for their roles in a scheme that stole over $9 million from Medicare through false and fraudulent claims for hospice services.
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 $9.1 million in restitution.
Akhsharumov’s consultant, Karen Sarkisyan, also known as Kevin Sarkisyan, 45, also of Glendale, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay $3.6 million in restitution.
According to court documents, from around January 2018 through May 2021, Akhsharumov used his two hospice companies to defraud Medicare of approximately $9 million.
Officials state that Akhsharumov concealed his ownership and control over the hospice entities from Medicare during the scheme, inserted nominee owners, paid kickbacks to patient recruiters, and profited from the scheme.
In April 2020, after San Gabriel had ceased operations, Akhsharumov fraudulently used the company to 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, a Department of Health and Human Services program intended to rapidly distribute pandemic-related funding to healthcare providers who met certain criteria.
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 $3.6 million to San Gabriel, of which $3.1 million 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 federal government.
HHS-OIG and the FBI Los Angeles Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant Chief Niall M. O’Donnell and Trial Attorney Patrick J. Queenan of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.