Three Glendale doctors accused of Medi-Cal fraud

Darleene Barrientos

Three Glendale doctors were among seven people charged Thursday in a

Medi- Cal fraud scheme that bilked $500,000 from the state,

authorities said.

Armen Kazanchian, 46, Noune Pashinian, 41, and Vahan Madatovian,

46, are each charged with one count of grand theft with special

allegations, eight counts of Medi-Cal fraud, seven counts of identity

theft and two counts of money laundering, said Collin Wong, director

of the state bureau of Medi-Cal fraud and elder abuse.

The three doctors, who practiced from their respective offices on

Central, El Rito and Pacific avenues, were charged along with Robert

Khatchatrian, 48, of Burbank, Asmik Aroutiounian, 45, also of

Burbank, Norik Yeghisian, 55, of Glendale, and Vagharshak Pilossyan,

of Sherman Oaks. Pilossyan, also a doctor, ran a practice on

Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks.

The case is significant because of the involvement of the four

board-certified doctors, Wong said.

“They should have been able to make viable living,” Wong said.

“But they gave in to their greed and avarice.”

Aroutiounian and Khatchatrian, who are married, are accused of

running MTC Pharmacy in Van Nuys as a front for their fraud from July

2000 to April 2001, Wong said. The four doctors reportedly issued

prescriptions to the pharmacy with their patients’ information. In

turn, the pharmacy allegedly billed Medi-Cal, but did not buy the

prescriptions.

Yeghisian, who was reportedly employed as the pharmacy’s office

manager, is accused of taking the profits of MTC Pharmacy and

laundering it through a second company, Royal Caviar.

Aroutiounian and Khatchatrian have fled the country, Wong said,

and are believed to be in Armenia. The bureau is in the process of

arranging self-surrender for the other five suspects with their

attorneys, Wong said.

“Too often this area of crime is overlooked and dismissed because

it’s perceived as a victimless crime,” Wong said. “But the financial

burden for health care fraud lands on the shoulders of the people of

California.”