Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on Thursday filed a civil rights complaint against Dr. Mehmet Oz over his “baseless and racially charged allegations” concerning alleged hospice fraud in Los Angeles’s Armenian community.
The California governor’s office is targeting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, who posted a video on Monday explaining the Trump administration believes Russian-Armenian gangs and mafia may be behind the alleged hospice fraud.
“A lot of it’s driven by foreigners who came to Los Angeles — very different culture, Russian-Armenian groups — and this mafia seems to have taken over the system,” Oz said, adding that the “magnitude” of the fraud requires aggressive action from the federal government. “They’ve corrupted the doctors. They’ve normalized fraud, so that everyone sort of expects it.”
In the complaint, Newsom claimed Oz’s statements “reflect discriminatory animus, and reveal a discriminatory motive that could infect how investigations of alleged fraud are conducted.”
Newsom cited Oz’s comments about a popular Los Angeles bakery using Russian-Armenian “lettering and language” on its sign. The governor claimed the administration official’s video “caused real world harm,” leading to a 30% drop in sales for said bakery this week.
The civil rights complaint was filed on Thursday with the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Oz’s agency.
Newsom is calling for a Title VI investigation. The civil rights law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs.
It remains to be seen whether HHS will open an investigation as requested.
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Oz estimates the alleged fraud scheme amounts to $3.5 billion and involves 42 hospices in a four-block radius of the Van Nuys neighborhood.
The supposed fraud scheme is similar to one in Minnesota, where the Trump administration is currently investigating the local Somali community’s connection to widespread social services fraud.
