MRI Operator Sam Solakyan Indicted for $284M Fraud

San Diego,CA ( WorkersCompensation.com) - Sam Sarkis Solakyan operated diagnostic imaging facilities throughout California, including in Richmond, Hayward, San Jose, Garden Grove, Anaheim, Burbank, and San Diego.

His companies allegedly included Vital Imaging, San Diego MRI Institute, Global Holdings LLC, Empire Radiology LLC, Access Integrated Healthcare LLC, d.b.a  AIH Imaging, Access Imaging LLC, Paramount Management Services LLC, and Capital Edge Holdings, LLC.

Solakyan was indicted by an April 2018 federal grand jury which was unsealed on September 27.  

The indictment alleges that Solakyan intentionally conspired with Dr. Steven Rigler, Fermin Iglesias, Providence Medex Solutions, Carlos Arguello, Alexander Martinez, and others to commit Honest Services Mail Fraud, that is, to knowingly and with the intent to defraud, devise and participate in a material scheme to defraud and to deprive patients of the intangible right to their physicians' honest services,

And that the "defendant and his conspirators offered to pay, and paid, compensation to physicians (and those acting on their behalf) to refer Workers' Compensation patients to Solakyan's Companies for MRI and other services."

And they allege that he entered into various sham agreements such as contracts for "marketing," "administrative services," and "scheduling," when in reality the money paid by defendant amounted to volume-based, per-scan bribes and kickbacks to induce physicians to refer patients to Solakyan' s Companies.

It was a further part of the alleged conspiracy that, over the course of their scheme, defendant, using bank accounts in the names of Global Holdings and Empire Radiology, paid Iglesias and Arguello, through their company MedEx, over $8.8 million to obtain MRI referrals from physicians compensated by Iglesias and Arguello.

It was a further part of the conspiracy that defendant allegedly submitted and caused to be submitted over $284 million in claims for ancillary medical services procured through the payment of bribes and kickbacks.

Solakyan was arrested, and his defense counsel's requested a "Nebbia Hearing" which was set for 10/3/2018 04:00 PM in Courtroom 2B before Magistrate Judge Stanley A. Boone.

Many federal courts add a bail sufficiency requirement to the bond, also known as a "Nebbia, Nebia Hearing, bail source hearing or 1275 bail sufficiency hearing."

The defendant must show that the source of the bail premium and collateral are from a legitimate source and were not acquired through illegal activities, or from the profits of a crime such as drug trafficking, money laundering, theft or fraud. Testimony, accounting documents, tax returns, banking records, and business records are a few things a court may consider in determining the sources of the finances are legitimate.

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