A woman from the Larchmont district was sentenced on March 23 to 35 months in federal prison for stealing more than $14 million from Medicare by submitting fraudulent claims for hospice care and diagnostic testing services. The defendant, Sophia Shaklian, 38, was also ordered to pay $14.1 million in restitution.

Shaklian pleaded guilty in November to one count of health care fraud. From March 2019 to August 2024, Shaklian and co-conspirators submitted fraudulent claims on behalf of multiple fake hospice and diagnostic testing providers enrolled with Medicare. The businesses included Chateau d’Lumina Hospice and Palliative Care, which is a Pasadena-based Shaklian-owned hospice company, and several diagnostic testing companies including Direct Imaging and Diagnostics and Lab One, based in Hollywood; Saint Gorge Radiology, based in Sylmar; Hope Diagnostics, in North Hollywood; and Labtech and Lifescan Diagnostics, in Claremont.

Shaklian and co-conspirators used information from Medicare beneficiaries, and checked beneficiaries’ Medicare eligibility, to knowingly submit fraudulent claims on behalf of beneficiaries who did not need services, never received the services and were not familiar with the hospice and diagnostic testing providers, authorities said. Shaklian admitted in a plea agreement that fraudulent claims were submitted on behalf of the fake providers, some by herself and others by co-conspirators.

Shaklian’s co-defendant Alex Alexsanian, 48, also known as “Samvel” and “Samo,” of Burbank, pleaded guilty on Jan. 20 to one count of conspiracy to launder money. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison at a sentencing hearing on April 28.