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February 20, 2019
Orthopedic Surgeon Gil Tepper Pleads Guilty. Agrees To A Plea Deal With The Los Angeles District Attorney.

February 15, 2019
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Sam Sarkis Solakyan, from North Hollywood, with business addresses of record in Glendale and Burbank, along with an MRI facility on Ruffan Road in San Diego, California, was arrested on September 26, 2018.  The arrest warrant was issued by Federal Judge Bernard Skomal on September 25^th 2018.

The Indictment filed on September 25^th 2018, and originally sealed, was unsealed per order of the court, the United States District Court of the Southern District of California, on September 27^th 2018. 

The 12 counts included in the Indictment were for conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud and health care fraud, honest services mail fraud, aiding and abetting, and demanded criminal forfeiture.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Sheppard presented an oral motion to the court on September 27^th 2018 moving to detain Solakyan as a flight risk.  Solakyan was arraigned on that same date and pleaded not-guilty.  The detention hearing was set for today, October 2, 2018, at 2:00 pm in San Diego before Judge Stanley Boone.

Solakyan, only 37 years of age, had a medical transportation company dating back to when he was only 21.  Since at least 2012, he had been operating diagnostic screening facilities that included Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans.  He worked with Fermin Iglesias and Carlos Arguello, who heavily recruited injured workers, mostly Spanish speaking Mexicans and Central Americans.  Solakyan paid over $8.8 million dollars in kick-backs to Medex Solutions, owned and controlled by Iglesias and Arguello, in order to obtain MRI referrals to his companies Global Holdings and Empire Radiology. 

Solakyan also had numerous and assorted other company shells with various names he used to work his criminal ring. One well known one is Vital Imaging. He had his imaging facilities in Richmond, Hayward, San Jose, Garden Grove, Anaheim, Burbank, as well as at the San Diego Ruffan Road location. 

Iglesias and Arguello have been previously indicted by the federal government plus were charged by the Orange County District Attorney in June of 2017. 

Sam Solakyan also paid physicians, like Steven Rigler, D.C., cash for each MRI scan referred to his companies.  His fee-per-scan system gave incentives to physicians to recommend more scans than necessary for any patient. 

Over $284 million dollars in invoices for claims were submitted or caused to be submitted by Sam Sarkis Solakyan to workers’ compensation payers for ancillary medical services procured through the payments of bribes and kick-backs.

lonce@adjustercom.com, Lonce Lamonte, journalist