White Collar Crime News

Seventy-Three Members and Associates of Organized Crime Enterprise, Others Indicted for Health Care Fraud Crimes October 17, 2010

Seventy-three defendants, including a number of alleged members and associates of an Armenian-American organized crime enterprise, were charged in indictments in five judicial districts with various health care fraud-related crimes involving more than $163 million in fraudulent billing.  In this national, multi-agency investigation, 52 were arrested in the largest Medicare fraud scheme ever perpetrated by a single criminal enterprise and charged by the Department of Justice.   The defendants are charged with engaging in numerous fraud activities, including highly-organized, multi-million-dollar schemes to defraud Medicare and insurance companies by submitting fraudulent bills for medically unnecessary treatments or treatments that were never performed. According to the indictments, the defendants allegedly stole the identities of doctors and thousands of Medicare beneficiaries and operated at least 118 different fake clinics in 25 states for the purposes of submitting Medicare reimbursements.

Forty-four defendants were charged in two indictments with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit the following acts: health care fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, fraud in connection with identity theft, credit card fraud, and immigration fraud. In addition, seven defendants were charged with health care fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering, forfeiture, and aggravated identity theft. Six defendants were charged with health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft. Six defendants were charged with health care fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and aggravated identity theft. Ten defendants were charged in two indictments with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, criminal forfeiture, aggravated identity theft, aiding and abetting, and causing an act to be done.

The Mirzoyan-Terdjanian Organization is named for its principal leaders, Davit Mirzoyan and Robert Terdjanian. The leadership of the organization is based in Los Angeles and New York, and its operations extend throughout the world.  Among the defendants charged with racketeering is Armen Kazarian, who is alleged to be a “Vor,” a term translated as “Thief-in-Law” and refers to a member of a select group of high-level criminals from Russia and the countries that has been part of the former Soviet Union, including Armenia. This is the first time a Vor has ever been charged for a racketeering offense, and the first time since 1996 that a known Vor has been arrested on any federal charge.

Passaic County Criminal Defense Lawyers