Four California residents were sentenced to prison for their roles in defrauding Medicare of nearly $16 million through sham hospice companies and laundering the fraudulent proceeds. On November 17, 2025, Juan Carlos Esparza, 33, of Valley Village, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1,825,012, and Susanna Harutyunyan, 39, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,822,963. In October 2025, Karpis Srapyan, 35, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3,203,574. In September 2025, Mihran Panosyan, 47, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $4,680,146. Additionally, in May 2025, Petros Fichidzhyan, 44, of Granada Hills, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $17,129,060.
According to court documents, Esparza schemed with others, including co-defendants Fichidzhyan and Srapyan, to bill Medicare for hospice services that were medically unnecessary and never provided. From July 2019 until January 2023, Esparza, Fichidzhyan, and Srapyan operated four sham hospices, one of which, House of Angels Hospice, was owned by Esparza. Fichidzhyan, Esparza and Srapyan concealed the scheme by using foreign nationals’ names and personally identifiable information to act as straw owners for the hospices and to open bank accounts, submit information to Medicare and sign property leases. They also controlled and used cell phones in the names of the foreign nationals in furtherance of the scheme. In total, Medicare paid the sham hospices nearly $16 million.