Meyers receives best paper award
Travis Meyers, a doctoral student in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, part of the College of Public Programs, has won the Best Student Paper from the White Collar Crime Research Consortium. Meyers will receive the award at the American Society of Criminology meeting this month in San Francisco, California.
Meyers’ paper, “Examining the Network Components of a Medicare Fraud Scheme: The Mirzoyan-Terdjanian Organization,” was motivated by the need for more methodological procedures in the study of white-collar crime and lack of research on how social network analysis can be used to disrupt transnational criminal organizations involved in fraud.
Using historical data, Meyers examines the structure of the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian organization which defrauded the U.S. Medicare system out of more than $100 million.
The Armenian-American criminal group stole the identities of doctors and fraudulently billed Medicare for procedures that were never performed.
Meyers’ paper goes beyond a look at the organizational structure of the group, focusing on industry-specific factors related to healthcare fraud and the policy implications facing the sector.
The article is also under review at The Journal of Crime, Law, & Social Change.
Meyers joined the doctoral program in 2013, after receiving his M.S. in criminology and criminal justice from Arizona State University.