A hospice operator in California has recently been sentenced to serve four years and nine months in prison for their involvement in a nearly $16 million fraud and money laundering scheme.

Karpis Srapyan, 35, along with Petros Fichidzhyan and Juan Carlos Esparza, allegedly operated four sham hospice companies, which were allegedly owned by “foreign nationals,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The hospice operators are accused of submitting false Medicare claims for services that were either never provided or medically unnecessary.

Srapyan in July pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and health care fraud. In addition to the recent federally court-ordered prison sentence, he was also ordered to pay $3.2 million in restitution to Medicare, according to a report in Los Angeles Daily News.

“Srapyan and his co-defendants concealed the scheme by using foreign nationals’ personal identifying information to open bank accounts, submit information to Medicare, and sign property leases,” the Justice Department indicated in a previous statement. “They also misappropriated names and other identifying information of several doctors, two of whom were deceased, to fraudulently bill Medicare for purported hospice services.”

Srapyan and his co-defendants allegedly spent the money on real estate, vehicles and other goods and services, according to the Justice Department.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigated the case, which was prosecuted by the Justice Department’s criminal division.

 All told, the Justice Department has accused five individuals of fraudulent health care billing and money laundering pertaining to this case.

In addition to Srapyan, Fichidzhyan and Esparza, the hospice scheme involved several conspirators, all of whom have either been convicted or pleaded guilty. Co-defendents have included Susanna Harutyunyan and Mihran Panosyan. Fichidzhyan pleaded guilty to health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering and in May he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.