LOS ANGELES — A Burbank man suspected of using Sill to illegally collect Medicare reimbursements paid to a blood testing company and avoid paying nearly $5.8 million in federal taxes over several years was arrested Tuesday in federal court. Indicted by a grand jury.
Armen Mouradian, 58, was charged with tax evasion in downtown Los Angeles.
He has been in federal custody since his arrest at Los Angeles International Airport on April 9, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Murajan, a dual citizen of the United States and Armenia, was arrested before boarding the one-way flight, whose final destination was Armenia. Murajan's arraignment is scheduled for April 29 in Los Angeles federal court.
According to court documents, Muradian owned and operated a Burbank-based blood testing laboratory called Genex Laboratories.
Medicare and bank records show Medicare paid Genex millions of dollars in reimbursement for blood tests. The refund was sent to a bank account in the name of an individual identified in court documents by the initials LS. LS was a longtime friend of Murajan, and Murajan had offered to pay him $2,000 a month to impersonate Genex's owner.
Prosecutors say Muradian told LS that he needed to submit Medicare enrollment documents to Medicare on Genex's behalf because Medicare prohibits Muradian from filing insurance claims.
LS and Mouradian opened a Genex bank account in LS's name, which Mouradian allegedly controlled. According to the indictment, LS, who did not own or operate Genex, visited the company's Burbank office to receive monthly payments of $2,000 and sometimes signed documents at Muradian's direction.
For tax years 2015 to 2020, Mr. Muradian directed LS to report Genex's financial activities on LS's personal income tax return using documentation provided by LS to its own tax personnel. It is said that he did. Documents show that Genex has minimal net income or is operating at a loss, meaning the company owes little or no income taxes.
During the same period, Mouradian allegedly filed income tax returns reporting average annual income of $40,000 without attributing any of Genex's financial activities as his own. In fact, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Murajan personally received and used millions of dollars in Medicare reimbursements to support his own expensive lifestyle.
According to court documents, Mr. Mouradian's unreported income for these tax years was approximately $16.2 million, resulting in a total federal income tax liability of approximately $5.8 million for him.
