The U.S. Department of Justice recently launched the “2026 National Healthcare Fraud Enforcement Action,” uncovering a total of $6.5 billion in fraudulent claims, with California being a key focus area. As more individuals in California face federal charges, numerous healthcare scams involving tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars have come to light.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that since June 8th, a total of 455 defendants across the country have been indicted for healthcare fraud, with many leading lavish lifestyles using illicit gains to purchase luxury items, cars, mansions, jewelry, and engage in activities like gambling and travel.
These carefully orchestrated scams include hospice care facility owners in Los Angeles using deceased individuals’ identities to defraud health insurance, healthcare professionals abusing prescription privileges for fraudulent claims, and overcharging for prescription drugs.
As part of the nationwide crackdown on healthcare fraud, federal law enforcement agencies in the greater Los Angeles area simultaneously arrested five defendants, with one individual involved in a meticulously planned scam amounting to $27 million in fraud.
In a case targeting Medicare fraud, Oren David Shachar, a 59-year-old man from Van Nuys in Los Angeles County, operated four different hospice care companies over five years in collusion with marketers Abraham Shin and Jeannie Choi to defraud Medicare.
According to the indictment, Shachar and his associates submitted false claims for end-of-life care services under the names of non-hospice patients or deceased individuals. They are accused of paying local funeral homes for deceased individuals’ personal information, though the extent of funeral homes or staff receiving kickbacks remains unclear.
Shachar lived a lavish lifestyle with illicit proceeds, including the purchase of a $530,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom.
In another case, Christina Mareik, a 61-year-old woman from Whittier, was arrested on June 17th, facing federal criminal charges related to healthcare fraud.
It is alleged that Mareik participated in a scheme where individuals submitted nearly $270 million in false claims over 11 months to the California Medicaid program Medi-Cal for expensive prescription drugs.
Mareik worked for 67-year-old Orange County man Paul Richard Randall, who pleaded guilty in April to orchestrating a fraud conspiracy through a pharmacy called “Monte Vista Pharmacy.” The other two accomplices were 37-year-old pharmacist and pharmacy owner Kyrollos Mekail, and 58-year-old licensed nurse Patricia Anderson.
Specifically, the scheme took advantage of a lapse in the Medi-Cal payment system, where providers were temporarily not required to obtain prior authorization for certain medications in 2022. Exploiting this loophole, the group submitted inflated monthly claims totaling tens of millions of dollars for drug costs.
According to court documents, Mareik played a crucial role by creating thousands of fake prescriptions for Medi-Cal beneficiaries, instructing accomplices to sign the prescriptions and submitting them to pharmacies for false claims.
These fraudulent invoices involved 19 expensive drugs not covered by insurance contracts, many of which were actually inexpensive generic drugs falsely reported at high prices and not provided to patients. The pharmacy billed Medi-Cal over $269 million, receiving more than $178 million in actual funds.
Mareik illicitly obtained at least hundreds of thousands of dollars for her role in the fraud. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in federal prison.
In this nationwide crackdown on healthcare fraud, the Department of Justice seized assets worth over $182 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets.