California man pleads guilty in connection with laundering proceeds of $16M hospice fraud scheme

California man pleads guilty in connection with laundering proceeds of $16M hospice fraud scheme
US Department of Justice press release; 6/23/25
A California man pleaded guilty today to laundering more than $4.6 million in connection with a years-long scheme to defraud Medicare of nearly $16 million through sham hospice companies. According to court documents, Mihran Panosyan, ...worked with others to launder the proceeds of a massive Medicare fraud scheme, transferring the fraudulently obtained funds between multiple accounts before spending them. The scheme comprised three parts. First, three of Panosyan’s co-defendants used the identities of foreign nationals no longer in the United States to operate several sham hospice companies... Second, the co-defendants caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill and who never requested nor received hospice services... Third, Panosyan and his co-defendants laundered the proceeds of the scheme to conceal the source of the funds and their control over them... He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.