Authorities arrested eight people accused of conducting a series of health care fraud schemes that bilked tens of millions of dollars from Medicare and other insurance companies across Southern California, prosecutors announced April 2.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the eight defendants, including three nurses, a chiropractor, and a psychologist, were charged in separate cases with defrauding the health care system out of more than $50 million. The arrests were carried out in coordination with a federal task force that was established as part ofPresident Donald Trump's "war on fraud," according to theU.S. Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors alleged that the defendants were involved with various schemes to exploit union health benefits and hospice care programs through fraudulent claims and illegal kickbacks. Five of the cases involved hospice care facilities in several cities across Los Angeles County that submitted false claims to Medicare for patients who were not terminally ill and were not eligible for services, prosecutors said.
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One person in Idaho and another in the Los Angeles area were arrested for allegedly defrauding a labor union's health plans for purported chiropractic services, according to prosecutors. Another person in the Los Angeles area was accused of posing as a nurse and creating fraudulent immigration documents.
During anews conference, Essayli, appointed by Trump, accused California of not vetting when issuing hospice licenses and called the state the "kingdom of fraud." In astatement on X, California Gov.Gavin Newsomnoted that the state has already carried out various anti-fraud efforts, including banning new hospice licenses in 2021, revoking over 280 licenses in the last two years, and filing more than 100 criminal cases.
"The Trump Administration — home to the biggest fraudsters on Earth — is trying to blame California for issues with THEIR federal programs," Newsom said on X. "Glad to see the Feds finally taking seriously the fraud in the programs they themselves manage...only 15 months after Trump took office."
In March, Trump signed an executive order launching a task force led by Vice PresidentJD Vanceaimed at proving the president's claims that federal funds intended for social-welfare programs are being stolen in some states. The order signed designated that the task force look into fraud allegations across the country.
At the time, Trump specifically singled out California during remarks and said, without providing evidence, that fraud allegations were higher in Democratic-led states than in Republican-led states. Fraud expertspreviously told USA TODAYthat these cases are not a red or blue state problem, but an issue of how well states and the federal government work together.
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Alleged hospice care fraud schemes
Prosecutors alleged that defendants in the hospice care schemes had operated facilities that "bilked Medicare by using people without terminal illnesses as beneficiaries."
"The defendants charged today allegedly turned hospice care into a cash-producing operation, resulting in more than $50 million in losses to taxpayers," T. March Bell, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. "The magnitude of the losses underscores a deliberate abuse of the authority and trust afforded to health care providers."
The largest case that was announced on April 2 involved a hospice care company based in Artesia, California, a city in southeast Los Angeles County. Prosecutors accused the owner, who is a licensed vocational nurse, of using the company to submit more than $9 million in fraudulent hospice claims to Medicare from July 2020 to April 2025. She was paid over $8.5 million on these claims.
The owner allegedly billed Medicare for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill and paid kickbacks for the referral of patients, according to prosecutors. One couple told authorities that they had each been promised $300 per month to sign up for hospice care despite not being terminally ill and reported receiving unnecessary items such as nutritional shakes, non-prescription vitamins, and wheelchairs.
Other defendants include:
A psychologist and his wife, who is a registered nurse, were arrested for allegedly defrauding Medicare by paying illegal kickbacks for the referral of patients who were not dying. Prosecutors said the couple submitted more than $5.2 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and were paid over $4 million on the claims.
Another person who was charged is already serving time in federal prison in Seattle for a previous hospice fraud case, prosecutors said. Her husband was arrested as a co-defendant on the morning of April 2.
A licensed vocational nurse in the Los Angeles area was charged with using a hospice center to submit more than $3.8 million in claims from January 2022 to September 2025, according to prosecutors. She was paid about $3.4 million.
The CEO and CFO of another hospice center in the Los Angeles area, whose Medicare enrollment was revoked in August 2024, accused forging at least one physician's signature on Medicare paperwork to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from Medicare.
Contributing: Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:California hospice owner bilked taxpayers for millions in false claims
