Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in 10 SoCal Defendants Federally Charged with Defrauding Public Health Plans, Other Crimes

LOS ANGELES to As part of the national health care fraud takedown, federal law enforcement in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area have arrested five defendants, including a Whittier woman who participated in a scheme that submitted nearly $270 million in fraudulent claims to Medi-Cal for expensive prescription drugs, and a San Fernando Valley man who is charged with running hospice care companies that fraudulently billed Medicare $27 million, the Justice Department announced today. In total, federal prosecutors in the Central District of California have brought criminal charges against 10 defendants who’ve allegedly engaged in fraud against government-funded health programs or abused their positions as doctors to illegally prescribe controlled substances. The charges announced today are part of a strategically coordinated, nationwide law enforcement action that resulted in charges against 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims and significant patient harm, including death.

Today’s takedown represents a new era in federal, state, and international cooperation to combat health care fraud: cases in 56 federal districts and 45 U.S. states and territories, with 50 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units participating, the most in Department history. In addition, unprecedented international cooperation over the two-week Takedown resulted in the apprehension and return to the United States of the following health care fraudsters: one defendant in Kyrenia in connection with an over $3.7 billion scheme; two defendants in Estonia in connection with a previously charged $10.6 billion scheme; and, in the Philippines, one of FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters in connection with a previously-charged $1.2 billion telemedicine fraud scheme. The takedown involves the cutting-edge use of data analytics to target the worst actors; the seizure of more than $182 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets; and full-spectrum accountability for all criminal actors from doctor’s offices to corporate boardrooms.

Today’s coordinated enforcement action involves a whole-of-government approach, including: Actions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to suspend 1,079 providers and revoke billing privileges for 1,403 providers. 48 Civil Monetary Payment settlements amounting to over $73 million, over 1,400 provider exclusions, and 25 actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) under the Civil Monetary Penalties Law seeking more than $10 billion in payments to the Medicare Trust Fund from payments that CMS caught and suspended before the funds were paid to the fraudulent providers. Civil charges against 13 defendants for $14.8 million in health care fraud schemes, as well as civil settlements with 31 defendants totaling $23 million. 928 administrative cases by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seeking the revocation of authority to handle and/or prescribe controlled substances since October 1, 2025.

“This year’s National Health Care Fraud Takedown represents the greatest whole-of-government effort to combat health care fraud in our Nation’s history,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Under the decisive leadership of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and our law enforcement partners, this administration has ushered in a new era of enforcement that will safeguard taxpayer dollars.” “Public health programs are intended to support the elderly, the ill, the needy, and other vulnerable members of our communities,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “It is not there to enrich fraudsters.

Today’s announcement highlights our determination to hold anyone who defrauds our nation’s health system criminally accountable. We will find you. We will arrest you.

And we will seek long prison sentences.” “We are aggressively scaling our offensive against anyone using health care as a front to steal from the American people,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “As today’s cases and arrests show, there is no case too big, no scheme too complex, and no hiding place too remote for our relentless fraud-fighting team.

Our message is simple: if you put profit over patients, you should expect to be put in prison.” “Health care fraud steals from taxpayers, exploits vulnerable patients, and puts lives at risk,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“Today’s historic enforcement action sends a clear message: if you use our health care system to enrich yourself at the expense of patients or the American people, we will find you, we will prosecute you, and we will hold you accountable. HHS will continue working with our law enforcement partners to protect patients, safeguard taxpayer dollars, and restore integrity to our health care system.” “The coordination in the Health Care Fraud Takedown reinforces the Trump Administration’s efforts to end the crimes of bad actors who have ripped off U.S. taxpayers,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “This is a whole of government effort, to hold those who defraud our nation accountable.

Our message is clear: If you steal from American taxpayers, you will face the consequences.” “This results of this nationwide healthcare takedown are historic,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Under the leadership of President Trump, Vice President Vance, and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this FBI worked alongside our DOJ partners to arrest and charge over 450 people, including almost 100 medical professionals, for over $6 billion in alleged healthcare fraud schemes - showing the enormous amount of work done by our interagency law enforcement team over the last month and beyond. While today’s announcement is one of the largest on record to every arrest is a continued message to criminal actors who rob American taxpayers that you will not get away with your crimes.” “Taking advantage of grieving families at the moment they are mourning a loss and siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars from programs meant to provide real medical care, are harms that go far beyond fraud,” said Patrick Grandy, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

“These actions inflict deep emotional pain and drain resources that taxpayers and vulnerable patients rely on. The FBI, along with our partners, remain committed to protecting families during their hardest moments and defending the integrity of our health care system from those who seek to exploit it.” The following individuals have been charged in the Central District of California: United States v. Mareik Christina Mareik, 61, a.k.a.

“Christina Marie Sanchez Hernandez,” of Whittier, was arrested on June 17 on a federal criminal complaint charging her with health care fraud. She made her initial appearance on June 17 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

She is free on $100,000 bond and her arraignment is scheduled for July 23. Mareik allegedly participated in a scheme in which nearly $270 million in fraudulent claims were submitted over an 11-month span to Medi-Cal for expensive prescription drugs containing generic ingredients that were not medically necessary and, in many instances, not provided to the purported recipients. She worked for Paul Richard Randall, 67, of Orange, a patient marketer for Monte VP LLC, a Montclair-based company that did business as Monte Vista Pharmacy.

Randall, along with Monte Vista Pharmacy’s owner, Kyrollos Mekail, 38, of Moreno Valley, and Patricia Anderson, 59, of West Hills, took advantage of Medi-Cal’s suspension of its requirement that health care providers obtain prior authorization before providing certain health care services or medications as a condition of reimbursement. The suspension of the prior authorization requirements was part of an ongoing transition of Medi-Cal’s prescription drug program to a new payment system. According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Mareik “played a key role in this sprawling fraud scheme by creating fraudulent prescriptions for Medi-Cal beneficiaries,” directing Anderson to sign the fraudulent prescriptions understanding that Anderson had not seen the patients or otherwise determined that the medications were medically necessary, and arranging for the fraudulent prescriptions to be submitted to Monte Vista to submit claims to Medi-Cal.

From May 2022 to April 2023, Mareik facilitated the signing of the bogus prescriptions that were billed to Medi-Cal for nearly $270 million and in turn for which Medi-Cal paid more than $178 million for 19 expensive, non-contracted drugs containing low-cost, generic ingredients that were not medically necessary or were not provided. Mareik sent thousands of fraudulent prescriptions to Anderson and caused the submission of fraudulent prescriptions under her own name. Numerous patients complained about receiving medications from Monte Vista for which they had no use and no knowledge as to why they were receiving the medications.

Mareik handled the patient complaints so patients would not involve law enforcement and so that the fraud scheme could continue. After an audit of Monte Vista by the California Department of Health Care Services, Mareik sent Mekail hundreds of fraudulent progress notes for Medi-Cal beneficiaries to help cover up the scheme. Mareik received hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent Medi-Cal proceeds for facilitating the scheme.

If convicted, Mareik would face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. Randall pleaded guilty on April 7 to one count of wire fraud committed while on release and faces a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison at his August 3 sentencing hearing. Federal law enforcement has seized multiple luxury cards and rare baseball cards in connection with the scheme and are in forfeiture proceedings concerning homes Randall purchased with illicitly gained funds.

The FBI, HHS-OIG, and the California Department of Justice are investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Roger Hsieh of the Major Frauds Section and Trial Attorney Siobhan M. Namazi of the U.S.

Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section are prosecuting this case. Assistant United States Attorney James E. Dochterman of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section is handling asset forfeiture matters in this case.

United States v. Shachar, et al. Oren David Shachar, 59, of Van Nuys, and Abraham Shin, 66, of Corona, were arrested on June 18, made their initial appearances that day, and were arraigned in U.S.

District Court in Los Angeles. Both defendants, along with Jeannie Choi, 57, of Torrance, are charged in a 16-count indictment alleging that they conspired to defraud Medicare out of approximately $27 million. Choi was arrested Monday and is expected to make her initial appearance today in U.S.

District Court in Los Angeles. The charges in the indictment are conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, monetary transaction in criminally derived property over $10,000, and violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. Shachar and Shin are scheduled to go to trial on August 11.

A federal magistrate judge ordered both defendants released on bond. According to the indictment, from February 2021 to March 2026, Shachar, who conspired with marketers Choi and Shin in 2025, submitted false claims for hospice services that were medically unnecessary because the beneficiaries were not terminally ill or were not provided because the beneficiaries were already deceased. Shachar’s Medicare claims were also non-payable because Shachar paid illegal kickbacks to marketers to procure hospice beneficiaries and paid beneficiaries to remain enrolled in his hospices.

As part of this scheme, Shachar owned and operated at least four hospice care companies that he used to submit the fraudulent claims, including the Valley Glen-based Gentle Touch Hospice Care Inc., the Montclair-based Oxford Hospice Care Inc., the Encino-based Art of Hospice Inc., and the Glendale-based Holly Trinity Hospice. In 2025, Shin and Choi sold living and deceased patients’ personal identifying information to Shachar to assist him in perpetuating this fraud. If convicted of all charges, the defendants would face decades in federal prison.

The FBI and HHS-OIG are investigating this matter. Trial Attorney Michael Bacharach of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section is prosecuting this case.

United States v. Lopez Brenda Lee Lopez, 63, of Norwalk, was arrested this morning. She is charged in a federal grand jury indictment with seven counts of health care fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft in connection with a $9 million laboratory testing scheme to defraud Medicare.

Lopez is expected to make her initial appearance and be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. According to the indictment, Lopez, a medical office manager, prepared false orders for urinary tract infection tests, respiratory pathogen panels, and oral toxicology screens for Medicare beneficiaries using the names and forged signatures of four medical providers.

The beneficiaries did not provide specimens for the tests, and some were deceased at the time of testing. Lopez provided the orders to a laboratory, which billed Medicare for the fraudulent tests. At one point, Lopez attempted to pay one of the providers when the provider learned that his name was used without authorization to refer hundreds of tests to the laboratory.

In total, the laborator