A 55-year-old man from Porter Ranch admitted to defrauding the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic and now faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Artur Chanchikyan, owner of North Hollywood-based Gentle Touch Home Health Care, received a total of over $345,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) reported.
Despite allegations of fraud and a suspension from receiving Medicare payments by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in December 2019, Chanchikyan applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan worth $160,000 about four months later.
According to the DOJ, “Chanchikyan made false representations, including the number of employees to whom Gentle Touch paid wages and Gentle Touch’s average monthly payroll expenses at the time of the application, and false certifications that the loan would be used for permissible business purposes by Gentle Touch,” leading to Gentle Touch receiving approximately $45,472 in PPP loan proceeds.
In April 2020, Gentle Touch also received nearly $140,000 from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Provider Relief Fund, which “automatically distributed funds” to health care providers either impacted by the pandemic or treating COVID-19 patients.
In May 2020, Chanchikyan “falsely certified to HHS that he would use the funds to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19 or to reimburse Gentle Touch for health care related expenses or lost revenue attributable to COVID-19 as required,” prosecutors said.
Chanchikyan further deceived federal officials in July 2020 when he received almost $160,000 from the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program by “falsely represent[ing] the number of employees at Gentle Touch, and falsely certif[ying] that the loan would be used for permissible business purposes.”
Prosecutors stated that “Chanchikyan used the funds from the PPP, PRF, and EIDL programs for his own benefit and for purposes that were different from those he certified.”
Chanchikyan pleaded guilty on Thursday to one count of wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 5.