Nune Gevorkyan, a clerk at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles, CA, and her husband Oganes Koshkaryan have been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly leaking sealed criminal indictments against suspected members of the organized crime syndicate Armenian Power prior to their actual arrests in February 2011 as reported by The Smoking Gun: "investigators discovered the alleged scheme earlier this year after a leader of the Armenian Power gang began cooperating with federal agents and prosecutors, according to an affidavit sworn by FBI agent Corrie Lyle."
The big rackets these days aren't limited to gambling and drugs, and the major players in the underworld aren't just the Italian Mafia and drug cartels.
A new breed of criminal masterminds is healthcare providers who are using their medical offices to make a killing by submitting fraudulent claims through the Medicare system.
Earlier this week the feds busted 107 individuals, including dozens of doctors, nurses and social workers, in seven cities across the nation for allegedly bilking Medicare of $452 million through false billings as reported by Richard A. Serrano for the Los Angeles Times.
The estimates for billing fraud under the Medicare and Medicaid programs range from $20 to $100 billion each year. Electronic processing of claims from providers has allowed fraud against the government programs on a massive scale because they "are adjudicated by computers using rule-based systems, with no human intervention at all" as reported by Malcolm Sparrow for the Los Angeles Times: "those committing fraud find it easy to get paid for fabricated claims because the government's systems check for billing correctness but not for truthfulness."
The low-risk, high-reward scam even has attracted real mobsters. Of course, they just use phantom clinics through which to submit the phony claims.
In October 2010 the feds charged 73 defendants, including dozens of reputed members and associates of the transnational Armenian crime group known as the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian, for their alleged roles in a multi-state $163 million billing fraud scheme against Medicare according to an FBI press release:
According to the indictments, the defendants allegedly stole the identities of doctors and thousands of Medicare beneficiaries and operated at least 118 different phony clinics in 25 states for the purposes of submitting Medicare reimbursements. "The emergence of international organized crime in domestic health care fraud schemes signals a dangerous expansion that poses a serious threat to consumers as these syndicates are willing to exploit almost any program, business or individual to earn an illegal profit," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grinder.
According to the allegations contained in the indictment the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian "is named for its principal leaders, Davit Mirzoyan and Robert Terdjanian." Its leadership "is based in Los Angeles and New York" although "its operations extend throughout the United States and internationally." Among those indicted was Armen Kazarian whom the FBI alleged was a "Vor" or "thief-in-law" which the G-men characterized as "a member of a select group of high-level criminals from Russia and the countries that has been part of the former Soviet Union, including Armenia."
Four reputed Armenian Power gangsters "have been convicted for their roles in one of the largest bank fraud and identity theft schemes in California history" according to a press release by the Department of Justice: "this case is indicative of the growing trend of gang or organized crime-affiliated groups now engaging in identity theft and other financial crimes in furtherance of their enterprise." Over a six-year period the defendants and others stole more than $10 million dollars from victims across the southwest in a sophisticated scheme which involved the help of bank insiders.
Robert Terdjanian, a reputed co-leader of an Armenian crew which was based out of Los Angeles and New York, was sentenced yesterday to ten years in prison for his role in a massive Medicare fraud scheme as reported by Bruce Golding for the New York Post: "Manhattan federal prosecutors say the operation stole the identities of doctors and patients to set up 118 'phantom' medical clinics that submitted more than $100 million in phony claims."
Apparently those medical marijuana dispensaries have become targets of armed robberies by desperados seeking weed and/or cash as reported by Dennis Romero for LA Weekly: "there have been 10 dispensary shootings in a section of the Valley that covers the LAPD's Devonshire and Topanga stations since 2008." Moreover, LAPD Det. Robert Holcomb said that increasingly crimes against some dispensaries aren't reported but resolved through "street justice via 'organized crime, Mexican Mafia, cartels, Armenian mafia.'"
Meanwhile, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says drug policy is schizoid as reported by Daniel Hernandez for the Los Angeles Times: "'If the United States is legalizing marijuana and we're over here killing ourselves on the street over marijuana, that does not make sense,' Ebrard said Tuesday, referring to U.S. states, such as California, that have sought to decriminalize the sale and use of cannabis."
Reputed Armenian mobster Armen Kazarian, indicted last October with seventy-two others for his alleged role in a multi-state $163 million billing fraud scheme against Medicare, pleaded guilty last Friday to a racketeering conspiracy as reported by Scott Shifrel for the Daily News.
At the time of his indictment the feds called Kazarian a "Vor" or "thief-in-law" which they characterized as "a member of a select group of high-level criminals from Russia and the countries that has been part of the former Soviet Union, including Armenia."
Although Kazarian is the first alleged "vor" or "thief-in-law" whom the feds have convicted on a racketeering charge he only will face a maximum of three years in prison when sentenced in October pursuant to a plea deal.
