A San Fernando Valley woman pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for conspiring to defraud health insurance companies by causing millions of dollars in fraudulent claims to be submitted to provide patients with “free” cosmetic procedures, including Botox injections. The indictment included several co-conspirators, including an insurance company SIU investigator who helped her avoid detection.

Roshanak Khadem, 54, a.k.a. “Roxanne Khadem” and “Roxy Khadem,” of Sherman Oaks, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of subscribing to a false income tax return. She was the last of the group to plead guilty.

According to her plea agreement, she owned and operated facilities that provided aesthetic services to clients, including R&R Med Spa in Valley Village and Nu-Me Aesthetic and Anti-Aging Center in Woodland Hills.

Khadem caused patients to visit her clinics to receive cosmetic procedures, including Botox injections, facials and laser hair removal. Khadem knew these procedures were not covered by the patients’ health insurers. Khadem also knew that her employees informed some patients that, if they turned over their health insurance information to the Khadem-owned clinics, the patients could receive free or discounted cosmetic procedures pursuant to a “credit” they would earn.

Health insurance information from these patients was provided to the insurance biller for the clinics, knowing and intending that the information would be used to submit false and fraudulent claims to the health insurers for medical procedures that Khadem knew were either not actually provided to the patients or were not medically necessary.

Then, based on the amount that the health insurers paid on those false and fraudulent claims, Khadem and others would calculate an amount, which the co-conspirators referred to as a “credit,” that the patients could use to receive free or discounted cosmetic procedures from the clinics. Those patients would then come into the clinics to receive the free or discounted cosmetic procedures.

Khadem and her co-conspirators submitted claims, which included false and fraudulent claims for which those companies paid out at least $1,361,200.  Prosecutors estimate the amounts paid based on false and fraudulent claims submitted as part of the health care fraud conspiracy in which Khadem participated could be as much as $7,991,406.

Khadem failed to report this income on her income tax returns for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Khadem’s underreporting of her income for these three years caused a total tax loss of $453,451.

A June 27 sentencing hearing hearing has been scheduled, at which time she will face a statutory maximum sentence of 13 years in federal prison.

44 year old Gary Jizmejian, who lives in Santa Clarita, and who was a former senior investigator at the Anthem Special Investigations Unit, the anti-fraud unit within Anthem, previously pleaded guilty to using his cell phone to send text messages to co-defendants as part of a this commercial bribery scheme was also sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

The indictment alleged that, in return for cash payments, Jizmejian assisted Khadem and others by providing them with confidential Anthem information that helped them submit fraudulent bills to Anthem. In September 2012, Jizmejian gave Khadem insurance billing codes – CPT Codes – that Jizmejian knew could be used to submit fraudulent claims to Anthem without Anthem detecting the fraudulent claims. Jizmejian gave Khadem the billing code for an allergy-related lab test and instructed her to submit to Anthem large numbers of bills with this CPT code. Khadem and other members of the conspiracy used this billing code to submit approximately $1 million in fraudulent claims to Anthem, according to the indictment.

The indictment further alleged that Jizmejian worked to prevent the insurance companies from detecting the fraud at the clinics, which included helping Khadem to avoid responding to inquiries from fraud investigators, diverting attention of other Anthem SIU investigators away from the clinics, and closing Anthem investigations into fraud that was being committed at the clinics.

In September 2015, based on confidential information obtained from Anthem, Jizmejian tipped Khadem off about a federal criminal investigation into the clinics, according to the indictment.

The remaining three defendants in this case each have pleaded guilty. Lucine Ilangezyan, 42, of North Hills, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health fraud, and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. Dr. Roberto Mariano, 63, of Rancho Cucamonga, a physician who helped operate the clinics, and Marina Sarkisyan, 52, of Panorama City, who was the office manager at the clinics, await sentencing.