United States v. Artur Chanchikyan

Case summary

On or about Dec. 27, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services placed Artur Chanchikyan, 55, of Los Angeles, owner of Gentle Touch Home Health Care Inc., a home health agency in North Hollywood, California, under Medicare payment suspension based on fraud allegations. Gentle Touch then received money from three pandemic relief programs.¹

While under suspension, around April 2020, Chanchikyan applied for a $160,000 PPP loan for Gentle Touch, misrepresenting the number of employees it paid and its average monthly payroll. Gentle Touch received approximately $45,472. Around the same time, the HHS Provider Relief Fund, which automatically distributed money to providers that met certain criteria, deposited approximately $139,736 into Gentle Touch's account. On or about May 1, 2020, Chanchikyan falsely certified to HHS that he would use the funds to respond to COVID-19 or to reimburse Gentle Touch for health care expenses or lost revenue attributable to COVID-19. Around July 2020 he applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, again misstating the number of employees, and Gentle Touch received approximately $159,900.¹

He used the money from all three programs for his own benefit and for purposes different from those he certified. Chanchikyan pleaded guilty to wire fraud in August 2023 for fraudulently obtaining $345,108 in COVID-19 relief funds, and was scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5, 2023.¹

Notes

1. U.S. Department of Justice, "Man Pleads Guilty to COVID-19 Fraud Scheme" (original). ↩₁ ↩₂ ↩₃

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.