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Former Medical Equipment Owner Sentenced for Conspiring to Defraud Medicare
A former Los Angeles-area medical equipment supplier has been sentenced to 24 months in prison for conspiring to submit nearly $1 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, authorities announced today.
Tigran Aklyan, 37, of Van Nuys, Calif., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald in the Central District of California. In addition to his prison term, Aklyan was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $653,461 in restitution.
Aklyan pleaded guilty in April 2013 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. In his plea agreement, he admitted that he was the owner and president of Las Tunas, a durable medical equipment supply company located in San Gabriel, Calif. Aklyan admitted that from October 2007 through May 2009, he conspired with others to commit health care fraud by providing medically unnecessary power wheelchairs and other DME to Medicare beneficiaries and submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare.
According to authorities, Aklyan paid the owners and operators of fraudulent medical clinics to provide him with prescriptions and supporting medical documentation for the PWCs and DME that he billed to Medicare. Aklyan knew that the prescriptions and medical documents that the clinics produced were fraudulent, yet he certified to Medicare with the submission of each claim that the DME was medically necessary.
From December 17, 2007, through February 20, 2009, Aklyan, through Las Tunas, submitted approximately $910,377 in fraudulent claims to Medicare for PWCs and related services, and Medicare paid Las Tunas approximately $653,461 on those claims.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the Los Angeles Region of HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Benton Curtis and Trial Attorneys David M. Maria and Blanca Quintero of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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