United States v. Artak Ovsepian

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background In 2010 and 2011, Artak Ovsepian participated in a healthcare fraud scheme operating out of a sham medical clinic known as Manor Medical Imaging, Inc. (“Manor”), in Glendale, California. As charged in the indictment, “Manor

USA V. OVSEPIAN

functioned as a ‘prescription mill’ that generated thousands of prescriptions for expensive anti-psychotic medications” that were medically unnecessary. A medical doctor named Kenneth Johnson allowed Manor employees “to falsely pose as physicians and physician’s assistants and to issue the Manor Prescriptions using defendant Johnson’s name and Medi-Cal and Medicare billing information.” Co- conspirator pharmacists would fill the Manor scripts and bill Medicare or Medi-Cal for the cost of the medically unnecessary prescriptions. Manor would then divert the drugs to the black market for resale to the pharmacies and then likely re-billing to health care programs as though the drugs were being dispensed for the first time. The conspirators utilized various methods to fill prescriptions and to bill Medicare or Medi-Cal. In some instances, Manor employees recruited low- or…