A woman from the Larchmont area of Los Angeles was sentenced to 35 months in federal prison for defrauding Medicare out of more than $14 million by submitting fraudulent claims for hospice care and diagnostic testing services that were either unnecessary or not provided at all. Sophia Shaklian, 38, was also ordered to pay $14,103,043 in restitution. From March 2019 to August 2024, Shaklian and her co-schemers — often using aliases — used multiple bogus hospice and diagnostic testing providers enrolled with Medicare and submitted fraudulent claims on behalf of companies she owned. Shaklian and her co-schemers used the information of Medicare beneficiaries, and checked beneficiaries’ Medicare eligibility to knowingly and willfully submit fraudulent claims to Medicare on behalf of beneficiaries who did not need the services, had never received the services, and were not familiar with the fraudulent hospice and diagnostic testing providers, with the intent to defraud Medicare into reimbursing the sham providers for those claimed services. Shaklian admitted in her plea agreement that fraudulent claims were submitted on behalf of the sham providers, some by herself and others by her co-schemers during and in furtherance of the above scheme. Shaklian caused a loss of at least $14,103,043 to Medicare.