Federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere charged 73 people. The scheme's scope and sophistication "puts the traditional Mafia to shame," US attorney Preet Bharara said at a Manhattan news conference. The reputed boss, Armen Kazarian, was in custody in Los Angeles.
Kazarian, 46, of California, and two alleged ringleaders - Davit Mirzoyan, 34, also of California, and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of New York - were named in an indictment in Manhattan charging conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
Authorities began the investigation after personal information on 2,900 Medicare patients in New York state was reported stolen.
The defendants allegedly are members or associates of an Armenian "organized crime enterprise" known as Mirzoyan-Terdjanian, according to federal law enforcement officials. They allegedly stole doctors' identities and used the information to enroll the phantom physicians as providers in Medicare, authorities alleged.
Nationwide, the ring operated at least 118 phony clinics in 25 states and billed Medicare for some $163 million, officials said.
"Healthcare fraud that targets the Medicare program makes victims of all Americans," Steven Martinez, who heads the FBI office in Los Angeles, said in a prepared statement. The investigation, officials said, was aimed at "top tier" medical fraud operators across the country and resulted in the indictments of 73 people in California, Georgia, New Mexico, New York and Ohio.
According to federal law enforcement officials, the alleged criminal enterprise is named for principal leaders Davit Mirzoyan and Robert Terdjanian, who are both charged in the indictment. Kazarian, based in Glendale, is the first alleged "Vor" ever charged with a racketeering offense, officials said. The last time a "Vor" was arrested on any federal charge was in 1996, officials added.
An Armenian-led ring of criminals has used non-existent clinics and identity theft to file fraudulent claims, bilking the US government medical insurance programme Medicare out of $163m, US authorities say.
The network's operations represent the largest single Medicare fraud by one criminal enterprise in the programme's history.
Armenian 'godfather' arrested
The gang operated under the protection of an Armenian crime boss, known in the former Soviet Union as a "vor", prosecutors said. Armen Kazarian, the ring's reputed boss, was in custody in Los Angeles.
Kazarian, 46, of California, and two other alleged leaders - Davit Mirzoyan, 34, also of California, and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn - were named in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan.
Most of the defendants were to appear in court later Wednesday on charges including racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
Also stolen were the identities of doctors. Shoddy fraud
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