A Los Angeles woman was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three years behind bars for her role in a scheme to defraud Medicare out of more than $14 million via hospice and diagnostic testing services that were frequently never provided.
Sophia Shaklian, 38, of the Larchmont neighborhood, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr., who ordered her to pay $14 million in restitution along with the 35-month federal prison term.
Shaklian pleaded guilty in November 2025 to a single count of health care fraud.
Co-defendant Alex Alexsanian, 48, of Burbank, pleaded guilty in January to money laundering conspiracy and is scheduled for sentencing next month.
A 24-count grand jury indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court two years ago charged both defendants with taking part in the scheme. Prosecutors said Shaklian, often using aliases, managed and submitted claims for seven health care providers enrolled with Medicare and located in Los Angeles County. The businesses included a hospice company she owned and several diagnostic testing companies.
From March 2019 to August 2024, the companies submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for services that were never provided and not needed, and received more than $14 million for those claims, federal prosecutors said.
Shaklian laundered Medicare funds by transferring them to accounts in the name of a fake identity, documents show.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Alexsanian directed a foreign national to open a radiology clinic and acquire Medicare provider Console Hospice in Van Nuys, then hand over control of those companies and their bank accounts and the foreign national’s personal bank accounts to Alexsanian.
Alexsanian conspired with the foreign national, who has since left the country, and others to have the clinic and Console Hospice submit fraudulent claims to Medicare for services never rendered.
Defendants laundered the Medicare reimbursements they received, as well as funds deposited into their accounts, through the phony identity, and used them to, among other things, buy more than $6 million in gold bars and coins, prosecutors said.