Armenian Crime Ring Charged in Phony Clinic Scam

WASHINGTON — Last week 73 defendants, including members of
an Armenian-American organized crime ring, were charged with
various health care crimes involving more than $163 million in
fraudulent billing (but not for DME) in what was called “the
largest Medicare fraud scheme ever perpetrated by a single criminal
enterprise and charged by the Department of Justice.”

According to the DOJ, the international organized crime
enterprise known as the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian perpetrated a
nationwide scam that “fraudulently billed Medicare for more than
$100 million of unnecessary medical treatments using a series of
phantom clinics.” Described in indictments unsealed Oct. 13 in five
states — California, Georgia, New Mexico, New York and Ohio
— the defendants allegedly stole the identities of doctors
and thousands of Medicare beneficiaries and operated at least 118
different phony clinics in 25 states.

“The emergence of international organized crime in domestic
health care fraud schemes signals a dangerous expansion that poses
a serious threat to consumers as these syndicates are willing to
exploit almost any program, business or individual to earn an
illegal profit,” said Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G.
Grinder.