{"id":13797,"date":"2015-07-20T14:37:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T21:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797"},"modified":"2015-07-20T14:37:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T21:37:39","slug":"leader-of-phony-medical-clinic-scam-who-defrauded-medicare-sentenced-to-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797","title":{"rendered":"Leader of Phony Medical Clinic Scam Who Defrauded Medicare Sentenced to 20 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"u.s.DISTRICT<\/a>A federal judge sentenced the leader of a group linked to a phony Glendale medical clinic that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison, officials said today.<\/p>\n

The group fraudulently prescribed expensive anti-psychotic medications and then re-billing the government for those drugs over and over, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Artak Ovsepian<\/strong>, 33, of Tujunga, one of the leaders of the conspiracy who oversaw the acquisition of drugs with bogus prescriptions.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero<\/strong> called the\u00a0offense \u201cdespicable\u201d and \u201chorrific.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Judge Otero noted that the scheme \u201cpreyed on some of those most vulnerable members of society, from the mentally ill, to down-and-out veterans, to elderly victims whose identities were stolen, which then interfered with their ability to obtain medical treatment\u201d that they truly needed.<\/p>\n

Following a jury trial in February 2014, Ovsepian was found guilty of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to misbrand pharmaceutical drugs, false statements to the federal government, and conspiracy to use other persons\u2019 identification documents in furtherance of fraud.<\/p>\n

Ovsepian was one of three people found guilty at trial, and one of 16 who have been convicted in relation to the scheme run out of Manor Medical Imaging in Glendale.<\/p>\n

The operators of Manor Medical employed an unlicensed medical practitioner to write bogus prescriptions using an American doctor\u2019s name and license number, and had close relationships with pharmacies and a fraudulent drug wholesale company that were used to funnel prescription drugs back to the pharmacies participating in the scheme, officials said.<\/p>\n

Employees of Manor Medical generated thousands of prescriptions for identify theft victims \u2013 such as elderly Vietnamese beneficiaries of Medicare and Medi-Cal, military veterans who were recruited from drug rehab programs, and denizens of Skid Row.<\/p>\n

Members of the conspiracy created or doctored patient files to make it falsely appear the drugs were necessary and the patients were legitimately treated.<\/p>\n

After the prescriptions were filled at pharmacies and paid for by Medicare and Medi-Cal, the drugs were sold on the black market and redistributed to pharmacies, where the drugs would be subject to new claims made to Medicare and Medi-Cal as though they were new bottles of drugs.<\/p>\n

The case was the first in the nation involving an organized scheme to defraud government health care programs through fraudulent claims for expensive anti-psychotic medications.<\/p>\n

Judge Otero noted that the conspiracy was \u201cparticularly devious\u201d because the participants believed they targeted \u201cunder-the-radar\u201d drugs in an effort to evade the attention of law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Ovsepian \u201cheld a leadership role in a complex and pervasive scheme to manipulate and steal the identities of the poor and vulnerable, to defraud essential government programs of more than $20 million, and to cover up those crimes through systematic lies and deception,\u201d federal prosecutors<\/strong> wrote in a sentencing memorandum previously filed with the court.<\/p>\n

The scheme generated fraudulent billings of more than $20 million, of which Medi-Cal and Medicare actually paid more than $9 million.<\/p>\n

Previously in this case, another leader of the conspiracy \u2013 Lianna \u201cLili\u201d Ovsepian, 34, of Tujunga, the manager and owner of Manor Medical \u2013 was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to health care fraud charges<\/p>\n

Following last year\u2019s trial at which Artak Ovsepian was found guilty, Judge Otero said, \u201cThe scope of the fraud was breathtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Judge added that the defendants \u201cpreyed upon the poor [and] used them as pawns.\u201d<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s trial, Artak Ovsepian was one of three people that were found guilty. The other two were:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dr. Kenneth Johnson<\/strong>, 48, of Ladera Heights \u2013 who served as the face of Manor Medical with pharmacists and auditors from Medicare and Medi-Cal, and who pre-signed thousands of blank prescriptions that were filled out by co-conspirators \u2013 who is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Otero on November 5; and<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nuritsa Grigoryan<\/strong>, 49, of Glendale \u2013 who holds an Armenian medical license and who pretended to be an American doctor when she saw homeless \u201cpatients\u201d at the clinic and filled out the bogus prescriptions pre-signed by Dr. Johnson \u2013 who fled the United States after being found guilty and remains a fugitive.<\/p>\n

The scheme centering on Manor Medical also involved pharmacies in and around the San Gabriel Valley.<\/p>\n

The conspiracy was essentially a \u201cprescription harvesting\u201d scheme in which Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries were recruited or had their identities stolen, the beneficiary information was used to bill Medicare and Medi-Cal for millions of dollars of illegitimate medical services and prescriptions.<\/p>\n

The drugs that were dispensed by the pharmacies were diverted to black market wholesalers and back to the pharmacies so the drugs could be used to submit new bills to Medicare and\/or Medi-Cal as though the drugs had never been dispensed, officials said.<\/p>\n

The primary pharmacy involved in the case, Huntington Pharmacy in San Marino, was operated by a Pasadena couple whose business grew dramatically due its affiliation with Manor Medical, including Medi-Cal claims that jumped from $50,000 in 2009 to approximately $1.5 million in 2010.<\/p>\n

One of the owners of the pharmacy, Phic Lim,<\/strong> is scheduled for trial on September 29.<\/p>\n

His wife, Theana Khou,<\/strong> previously pleaded guilty as part of a joint resolution with another case filed against her and her husband.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES A federal judge sentenced the leader of a group linked to a phony Glendale medical clinic that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison, officials said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[1482,44],"class_list":["post-13797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-clinic","tag-medicare-fraud"],"yoast_head":"\nLeader of Phony Clinic Scam Sentenced to 20 years in prison<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A leader of a phony clinic scam that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison.,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leader of Phony Clinic Scam Sentenced to 20 years in prison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A leader of a phony clinic scam that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison.,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-20T21:37:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"417\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"387\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Raul\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\"},\"headline\":\"Leader of Phony Medical Clinic Scam Who Defrauded Medicare Sentenced to 20 Years\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-20T21:37:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797\"},\"wordCount\":865,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Clinic\",\"Medicare Fraud\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Home Main Slider\",\"U.S. Department of Justice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797\",\"name\":\"Leader of Phony Clinic Scam Sentenced to 20 years in prison\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-20T21:37:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"A leader of a phony clinic scam that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison.,\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=13797#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg\",\"width\":417,\"height\":387},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"description\":\""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"width\":675,\"height\":231,\"caption\":\"American Justice Notebook\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\",\"name\":\"Raul\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Raul\"},\"description\":\"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leader of Phony Clinic Scam Sentenced to 20 years in prison","description":"A leader of a phony clinic scam that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison.,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leader of Phony Clinic Scam Sentenced to 20 years in prison","og_description":"A leader of a phony clinic scam that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison.,","og_url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797","og_site_name":"American Justice Notebook","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook","article_published_time":"2015-07-20T21:37:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":417,"height":387,"url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Raul","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Raul","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797"},"author":{"name":"Raul","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0"},"headline":"Leader of Phony Medical Clinic Scam Who Defrauded Medicare Sentenced to 20 Years","datePublished":"2015-07-20T21:37:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797"},"wordCount":865,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg","keywords":["Clinic","Medicare Fraud"],"articleSection":["Home Main Slider","U.S. Department of Justice"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797","name":"Leader of Phony Clinic Scam Sentenced to 20 years in prison","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg","datePublished":"2015-07-20T21:37:39+00:00","description":"A leader of a phony clinic scam that defrauded Medicare and Medi-Cal was sentenced to 20 years in prison.,","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=13797#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/fraud-medicare-card-cube-e1499997089362.jpg","width":417,"height":387},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","name":"American Justice Notebook","description":""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization","name":"American Justice Notebook","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","width":675,"height":231,"caption":"American Justice Notebook"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0","name":"Raul","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","caption":"Raul"},"description":"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.","sameAs":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13797"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13801,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13797\/revisions\/13801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}