L.A. Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in 15 Defendants Charged, Including Six Medical Professionals, with $2 Billion in Losses Alleged

LOS ANGELES – The Justice Department today announced charges against 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, for health care fraud schemes that collectively resulted in $2 billion in fraudulent claims to government and private health care programs, including sham substance abuse treatment programs, unnecessary artery treatments, and bogus hospice services.

The fraud alleged includes more than $1.6 billion billed in a scheme to lure vulnerable individuals to California for sham substance abuse treatment, the largest case of its type ever prosecuted by the Department; $134 million fraudulently billed to Medicare for unnecessary atherectomy procedures that resulted in injury to patients; and more than $138 million fraudulently billed to Medicare in three different hospice fraud schemes where the patients were not terminally ill.

In addition, a fourth defendant was indicted after previously being charged by complaint in a $270 million scheme to defraud Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, by submitting pharmacy claims for bogus prescriptions.

Read the entire press release. U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, October 22, 2026