Russian-Armenian Mob Running Ghost Hospices on Your Dime [WATCH]

Dr. Oz said a widespread hospice and home care fraud scheme in Los Angeles has exposed what he described as billions of dollars in fraudulent activity tied to organized crime, prompting renewed attention from federal law enforcement.

In remarks describing conditions on the ground, Dr. Oz said he observed an unusually dense concentration of hospice facilities operating within a small area of Los Angeles, raising immediate red flags.

“So you can see, these are medical buildings. They’ve got Cyrillic writing, Russian Armenian writing, both sides. There’s lots of action. It seems. I don’t know how many patients are getting care, but in this four block area in Los Angeles, there are 42 hospices,” Oz said.

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He said the number of hospices clustered so closely together suggested either an implausibly high concentration of end-of-life patients or a coordinated fraud operation.

“So either there are a lot of people dying here, or you’ve got a fraudulent activity that is so good that everyone wants to get in on it,” he said.

Oz said he was speaking from Van Nuys, where he pointed to boarded-up buildings allegedly listed as hospice centers.

“I’m in Van Nuys in Los Angeles, and this boarded up area above my head here is a big hospice center there, apparently quite a few hospices around here, 42 within a four block radius,” he said.

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According to Oz, one recent case illustrates how profitable the fraud has been. He said individuals involved were able to steal millions of dollars while facing minimal prison time.

“And these guys stole $16 million and listen carefully, the main guy went to jail for two years stealing $16 million it’s a good trade off for a lot of folks,” Oz said.

Oz described the facilities as largely inactive, despite billing for extensive services.

“And if you look at it, it’s pretty indescript. There wasn’t anyone really in there. They weren’t doing any services. They just got an address they could claim was a hospice,” he said.

He said the operators then billed the government for care that was never provided.

“And then they ran the business claiming people were at home getting services, which they really weren’t,” Oz said.

Oz said investigators have determined the scope of the fraud is far larger than individual cases, involving billions of dollars and tens of thousands of people.

“What we have learned is there’s roughly three and a half billion dollars of fraud taking place here in Los Angeles, in hospice and home care,” he said.

He attributed much of the operation to organized crime networks.

“It’s run quite a bit of it by the Russian Armenian mafia. You notice the lettering and language behind me is of that dialect, and it also highlights the fact that this is sort of an organized crime mafia deal,” Oz said.

Oz said the scheme relied on systemic corruption within the medical system.

“Where you’ve got folks who are systemically recruited doctors to write false prescriptions, hundreds of doctors participating,” he said.

He added that patients were also exploited to sustain the fraud.

“They’ve got 100,000 patients who they’ve tricked or paid to give them their beneficiary numbers so they can perpetuate the fraud,” Oz said.

Oz said those running the operations often avoid accountability.

“And then the criminals are just running the whole organization and quickly scurrying away when law enforcement does get around to prosecuting them,” he said.

He criticized California officials for failing to address the problem sooner.

“Unfortunately, in California, there has not been a lot of attention on these problems,” Oz said.

Oz said that is now changing, with federal authorities stepping in.

“That’s going to change the US, attorney the FBI, everyone’s now focused on the fact that in this state, which has about $30 billion worth of home and community based services, most of it might be fraudulent,” he said.

He concluded by saying the issue is now being treated as a top priority at the federal level.

“Those are big numbers, and we’re taking this seriously. President’s not going to tolerate this anymore,” Oz said.

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