Los Angeles-Area Man Pleads Guilty to Establishing Fraudulent Medical Clinics and Using Stolen Doctor Identities to Defraud Medicare of up to $13.6 Million
WASHINGTON— A Los Angeles-area man pleaded guilty today to establishing fraudulent medical clinics and using stolen identities of physicians to defraud Medicare of up to $13.6 million, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. Eduard Aslanyan, 37, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in the Central District of California. Aslanyan admitted that between March 2007 and September 2008, he established a series of fraudulent medical clinics in and around Los Angeles to defraud Medicare. Carolyn Vasquez, who pleaded guilty previously to conspiring with Aslanyan to defraud Medicare, recruited physicians to serve as the medical directors of Aslanyan’s fraudulent medical clinics, and helped them negotiate management agreements with Multiple Trading Inc., a shell company Aslanyan owned, which permitted Multiple Trading to manage the day-to-day operations of the clinics. In return for Multiple Trading’s man...