Man Pleads Guilty in $17M Medicare Hospice Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON—Petros Fichidzhyan, a California man, pleaded guilty to health care fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering in connection with scheme to defraud Medicare of more than $17 million through sham hospice companies and his home health care company, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Fichidzhyan is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14.

According to court documents, Fichidzhyan, 43, engaged in a years-long fraud scheme with others in efforts to operate a series of sham hospice companies. Fichidzhyan impersonated the identities of foreign nationals to use as the purported owners of the hospices—including using the identities to open bank accounts and sign property leases—and submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice services that were not medically necessary and not provided. 

In submitting the false claims, Fichidzhyan and his co-schemers misappropriated the identifying information of doctors, claiming the doctors had determined hospice services were necessary, when the purported recipients of these hospice services were not terminally ill and had never requested, nor received care, from the sham hospices. As a result of the scheme, Medicare paid the sham hospices nearly $16 million. 

Fichidzhyan personally received nearly $7 million of the proceeds from the fraud scheme, including more than $5.3 million in transfers to his personal and business bank accounts, which were laundered through a dozen shell and third-party bank accounts. Additionally, Fichidzhyan admitted to wrongfully obtaining more than $1 million for his home health care agency through the fraudulent use of a doctor’s name and identifying information in certifying Medicare beneficiaries for home health care, which he attempted to cover up by paying the doctor $11,000.

Fichidzhyan will face a mandatory penalty of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft charge, a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the health care fraud charge and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the money laundering charge. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.