Sam Sarkis Solakyan, the CEO of several medical imaging companies in Southern California, has been sentenced to five years in prison after his conviction in a scheme that generated more than $250 million in fraudulent claims through the state workers' compensation system.
In addition to his prison sentence, Solakyan was ordered to pay nearly $28 million in restitution to the victim insurers. He was also barred from working in the healthcare and workers' compensation industries for a three-year term of supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence.
Originally arrested in 2018, Solakyan was found guilty in July 2021 by a federal jury on charges related to running the scheme, which ran from at least mid-2013 to 2016 and involved claims for medical services procured through $9 million in bribes and kickbacks to physicians and others. Most of the billings were for MRI exams that were "totally medically unnecessary," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Solakyan served as CEO for companies such as Vital Imaging and the San Diego MRI Institute, operating diagnostic imaging facilities throughout California, including San Diego as well as the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Orange counties.
