A man from California, 44-year-old Petros Fichidzhyan, has been sent to prison for 12 years for playing a major role in cheating Medicare out of more than $17 million. Medicare is a government program that helps older people and those with certain disabilities pay for health care. Fichidzhyan and others created fake hospice and home health care companies and tricked the government into paying them for services they never provided.
Hospice care is supposed to help people who are near the end of their lives, making them comfortable and supporting their families. But in this case, the care was never actually given. Instead, it was all a lie used to steal money. Fichidzhyan and his group billed Medicare for hospice services that weren’t needed and were never done.
To hide what they were doing, they used the personal information of foreign nationals people who are not U.S. citizens—to open bank accounts, rent office space, and submit fake information to Medicare. They even used the names and personal details of doctors two of whom were already dead—to make it look like real professionals were involved.
Medicare ended up paying nearly $16 million to these fake hospices. Out of that, Fichidzhyan kept almost $7 million for himself.
Fake Documents, Fake People, Real Money
Fichidzhyan didn’t stop with fake hospices. He also used a home health care company to continue his fraud. He submitted over $1 million in false claims using a doctor’s name and identification without permission. That doctor didn’t know his name was being used until he confronted Fichidzhyan. To cover up the lie, Fichidzhyan tried to pay the doctor $11,000 to stay quiet.
He moved the stolen money around using fake bank accounts and companies that only existed on paper. These are often called shell companies, and they’re a common trick used by criminals to hide money. Fichidzhyan laundered over $5.3 million through a network of such accounts to make it hard for investigators to track the money.
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In February 2025, Fichidzhyan pleaded guilty to several serious crimes: health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. These crimes mean he lied to get money, stole people’s private information, and tried to hide the money he stole by moving it through different accounts.
The court not only sentenced him to 12 years in prison but also gave him three more years of supervised release once he gets out. He has to pay back $17,129,060 to the government. A house he bought with the stolen money has been taken away, and the government has already seized $2.9 million from his bank accounts.
Government Cracks Down on Hospice Fraud
This case is part of a larger effort by the U.S. government to stop fraud in the health care system, especially in the Los Angeles area, where many similar scams have been discovered. The Department of Justice has been working hard with other agencies to catch people who are stealing from Medicare and to protect taxpayer money.
Matthew R. Galeotti, who works with the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said that Fichidzhyan’s scheme was full of lies and fake paperwork. He called it an egregious scheme, which means it was extremely bad and shocking. The fraud wasted millions of dollars that were meant to help real patients.
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Omar Pérez Aybar, a special agent from the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), reminded the public that this type of crime hurts real people, not just the government. When someone cheats Medicare, it takes away resources from those who truly need medical help.
The FBI also helped in the investigation. Akil Davis, a leader at the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said the level of fraud was astounding and that the defendant “lined his pockets” while stealing from the American taxpayer.
The case was investigated by the FBI and HHS-OIG, and two attorneys from the Department of Justice—Eric C. Schmale and Sarah E. Edwards—led the prosecution. The DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force, a special team created to fight health care crimes, played a key role in this case. Since it began in 2007, this team has brought charges against more than 5,800 people who have together cheated the system out of over $30 billion.
You can read the full case from DOJ’s website:https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/california-man-sentenced-12-years-imprisonment-connection-17-m-medicare-fraud-schemes
