A man charged in connection with a $4 million health care fraud scheme will serve six years in prison, officials with the West Virginia Division of Justice announced Jan. 30.
Sargis Tadevosyan, 42, appeared in federal court Jan. 30 for charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Two other individuals also were charged in connection with the year-long attempted Medicare fraud scheme. Igor Shevchuk, 23, and Arsen Bedzhanyan, 22, were charged with using fake IDs to create bank accounts for six fraudulent Kanawha County businesses.
Tadevosyan allegedly drove the men to Charleston to set up the bank accounts.
However, according to testimony from the November trial, a man known as Garegin Mkhitaryan allegedly provided Shevchuk and Bedzhanyan with fake IDs to set up the bank accounts and threatened both men to participate in the scheme.
Bedzhanyan and Shevchuk pleaded guilty in September to aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.
"Today's sentence is likely the longest sentence ever handed down in a health care fraud case in West Virginia, and this case underscores my office's commitment to protect our health care system by vigorously pursuing the criminals who attempt to steal from it," U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said in a news release.
An order handed down Jan. 30 denied defendant's motions for a new trial and judgment of acquittal. According to the motion for a new trial, Tadevosyan's attorneys claimed the court failed to properly instruct the jury regarding specific intent and failed to suppress illegally seized photographs.
"First the court's instructions on specific intent were comprehensive and accurate as given," the order stated. "Second, the court appropriately denied the defendants' motion to suppress the photographs as set forth in the court's memorandum opinion and order entered on Nov. 2, 2011."
"The court further observes that when the photographs were admitted in evidence at trial, the defendant did not object to their admission," the order additionally stated.
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