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 Armenian “godfather” Armen Kazarian and the gang under his control is arrested. The gang has used non-existent clinics and identity theft to file fraudulent claims, bilking the US government medical insurance programme Medicare out of $163m, US authorities say.

The network's operations represent the largest single Medicare fraud by one criminal enterprise in the programme's history.
Federal prosecutors have brought charges against 73 people, most of whom were capture during raids Wednesday morning in New York City and Los Angeles.

There were additional arrests in three other states.
The extent and complexity of the alleged scam "puts the traditional Mafia to shame," US attorney Preet Bharara said. He said the group ran "a veritable fraud franchise'.'
Bharara said Kazarian's arrest was the first a vor, which he described as "the rough equivalent of a traditional godfather", had been charged in a US racketeering case.

Kazarian, 46, of California, and two other alleged leaders - Davit Mirzoyan, 34, also of California, and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn - were named in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan.
Most of the defendants "were Armenian nationals or immigrants.