California Defendants Sentenced over $16m Hospice Fraud & Money Laundering Scheme

Four California residents have been sentenced for orchestrating an extensive hospice fraud and money laundering operation that extracted nearly $16 million from Medicare. The case highlights the continuing threat of organised health care fraud in the United States and reinforces the Justice Department’s commitment to pursuing those who exploit vulnerable patients and critical public health programmes.

On 18 November 2025, the Justice Department confirmed the most recent sentences. Juan Carlos Esparza, aged 33, of Valley Village, received 57 months in prison and was ordered to repay $1,825,012. On the same day, Susanna Harutyunyan, aged 39, of Winnetka, received a 15 month sentence and was ordered to pay $2,822,963 in restitution. These sentences follow earlier judgments: in October 2025, Karpis Srapyan, aged 35, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 57 months and ordered to repay $3,203,574 and in September 2025, Mihran Panosyan, aged 47, also of Winnetka, received 57 months and must repay $4,680,146. In a separate hearing in May 2025, ringleader Petros Fichidzhyan, aged 44, of Granada Hills, was sentenced to 12 years with a restitution order of $17,129,060.

According to court documents, the group operated a network of sham hospices between July 2019 and January 2023, falsely billing Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary or never provided. Esparza, Fichidzhyan, and Srapyan established four fraudulent hospice companies, including House of Angels Hospice, and concealed their involvement by using the identities of foreign nationals to act as nominal owners. These stolen identities were used to open bank accounts, sign leases, interface with Medicare, and operate mobile phones intended to disguise the true controllers of the scheme. Medicare ultimately paid close to 16 million dollars to these sham providers.

The defendants then worked with Harutyunyan and Panosyan to launder the illicit proceeds. This involved moving funds through shell companies, using fraudulent identification documents, and holding bank accounts, cards, and financial instruments in the names of the purported foreign straw owners. They deliberately dispersed the funds across multiple accounts and assets to obscure the audit trail. Law enforcement has already seized 2,920,383 dollars from accounts linked to the operation, and the court has preliminarily ordered the forfeiture of two homes purchased with fraud proceeds.

All five defendants pleaded guilty earlier in 2025 to various offences including health care fraud, conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, and multiple forms of money laundering. The sentences reflect the scale of the fraud and the calculated steps taken to conceal the illicit income. The FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General led the investigation, supported by the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force.

The Strike Force, operating since 2007, continues to be a central pillar in the fight against large scale health care fraud, having charged more than 5,800 defendants responsible for over $30 billion in fraudulent billings. This case demonstrates the government’s ongoing focus on safeguarding the integrity of federal health care programmes and ensuring that perpetrators face significant criminal and financial penalties.

Read the press release here.