A Los Angeles woman was sentenced to nearly three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $14 million in restitution for her role in a Medicare fraud scheme involving fraudulent hospice and diagnostic testing services that were not needed or provided at all.
Sophia Shaklian was sentenced to 35 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfield Jr. on Tuesday, the Department of Justice said. She previously pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud last November.
The DOJ explained that the 38-year-old, a resident of the Larchmont neighborhood of L.A., and her “co-schemers” often used aliases and multiple bogus hospice and diagnostic testing providers enrolled with Medicare and submitted fraudulent claims on behalf of firms she owned, including her hospice company, Chateau d’Lumina Hospice and Palliative Care, and several diagnostic testing providers: Saint Gorge Radiology in Sylmar; Hope Diagnostics in North Hollywood; Direct Imaging & Diagnostics and Lab One – both based in Hollywood; and Labtech and Lifescan Diagnostics in Claremont…