Man pays for phony medical billing scheme

SACRAMENTO - A Hollywood businessman paid $95,000 in restitution to the Franchise Tax Board after pleading guilty to felony counts of grand theft, false billing, identity theft, money laundering and filing a fraudulent state income tax return, state tax officials announced last week.Hakob Arutunyan, also known as Jack Arutunian, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay an additional $110,000 restitution to Medicare. According to court documents, Arutunyan, 26, misappropriated the physician identification numbers of two Los Angeles County doctors. He then opened a medical billing business and fraudulently billed the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services for medical services that were never performed. He also failed to report the more than $470,000 in income from this scheme on his 2006 state income tax return, resulting in unpaid tax of more than $41,600.

********** Published: March 10, 2011 - Volume 9 - Issue 47