Los Angeles Woman Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for $14 Million Medicare Fraud

A Los Angeles, California, woman was sentenced Tuesday  to roughly three years in prison for her involvement in a $14 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Sophia Shaklian, a Los Angeles resident, was sentenced to 35 months in federal prison for defrauding Medicare out of $14 million by “submitting fraudulent claims for hospice care and diagnostic testing services that were either unnecessary or not provided at all,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

After pleading guilty in November to one count of healthcare fraud she was ordered to pay more than $14 million in restitution.

“From March 2019 to August 2024, Shaklian and her co-schemers – often using aliases – used multiple bogus hospice and diagnostic testing providers enrolled with Medicare and submitted fraudulent claims on behalf of companies she owned,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The fraudsters used the information of Medicare beneficiaries and willfully submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare on their behalf.

Just the News reported:

The beneficiaries did not need nor had ever received the services, and were not familiar with the fraudulent hospice and diagnostic testing providers. Shaklian and her fellow did this with the intent to defraud Medicare into reimbursing the sham providers for those claimed services, according to the Justice Department.

She admitted in her plea agreement that she and her co-schemers submitted fraudulent claims on behalf of the sham providers. Because Shaklian was involved in the billing and was familiar with the amounts Medicare paid to the fraudulent providers on the types of claims submitted in the scheme, she caused Medicare to lose at least $14,103,043.

The Department of Justice wrote in a press release:

Shaklian admitted in her plea agreement that fraudulent claims were submitted on behalf of the sham providers, some by herself and others by her co-schemers during and in furtherance of the above scheme.

…

Co-defendant Alex Alexsanian, 48, a.k.a. “Samvel” and “Samo,” of Burbank, pleaded guilty on January 20 to one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. He will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison at his April 28 sentencing hearing.