A large number of Armenian gangsters and their associates made the largest fraud by one criminal enterprise in the programs' history by using phantom health care clinics and other means to try to cheat Medicare out of $163 million dollars. The 73 people that were charged were caught in New York City and Los Angeles, but arrests were also made in New Mexico, Georgia, and Ohio. The company was under the protection of an Armenian crime boss. It is said to be the first time an Armenian had been charged in a U.S. racketeering case. Kazarian, Davit Mirzoyan, and Robert Terdjanian, were named in an indictment charging racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft. Terdjanian and others were accused of hatching other schemes involving stolen credit cards, untaxed cigarettes and counterfeit Viagra. Also, during a meeting last year at a Brighton Beach restaurant, Terdjanian pulled a knife on someone who owed him money "and threatened to disembowel the individual if the debt was not paid. So a judge jailed Terdjanian without bail.
After reading this article, I can't believe such a scam like this happened. It is even unbelievable of how many people where charged for it. I don’t think it is right that any kind of scam should ever happen. Especially in the U.S. It’s a good thing they were caught. I think that the Armenians should have had a background check before the company made them under protection. When it is said to be the first time an Armenian has been charged in the U.S., we now have to pay close attention to them.
Medicare fraud is big business right now, costing tax payers billions of dollars every year. This type of fraud is by no means being caused only by Armenians; Russians, Ukrianians, Nigerians, Mexicans, Americans and many others are charged with the very same type of crimes. According to an article done by ABC's Pierre Thomas, more than 16,000 medicare funded businesses were shut down after being investigated and found fraudulent. This isn't the first time an Armenian is being indicted in the US, I think you had meant that it is the first time this crime boss is being charged. What we need to look at is a faulty system of checks and balances in the medicare system. Clearly we need to figure out a better way to see if these businesses are legitimate.
ReplyDeleteWow this is kind of scary to read about, it makes you feel like our security and safety isnt high enough, I cant believe how many people were involved with this scam. At least they are catching the people responsible for it.
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