As the Trump administration is reportedly in talks to create a California anti-fraud task force, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta on Thursday strongly criticized what he described as the administration’s “reckless” and “false” speech about the fraud that has plagued the state.
At a news conference at the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown Los Angeles, Bonta said the Trump administration’s claims that federal programs are riddled with fraud and that their government is behind the scam were “bad and ridiculous and baseless.”
Bonta said many states are fighting fraud by foreign actors, saying “anywhere money flows there is risk” and that the state Department of Justice has thrown major resources into fighting illegal activities and recovering taxpayers’ money.
As the politicized national war on waste, fraud and abuse led by Republicans targets California and its Democratic leadership, Bonta and other state officials have quickly stepped up to fight the claims.
In California, Bonta said, authorities have recovered nearly $2.7 billion in criminal and civil prosecutions since 2016, including $740 million in prosecutions related to Medi-Cal fraud, nearly $2 billion under the state’s False Claims Act, and another $108 million from a tax fraud task force.
State authorities have often cooperated with the federal government in the past on such investigations and welcome a fiduciary relationship in the future, Bonta said.
CBS News reported the creation of a California-based fraud task force earlier this week, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with the plans. This site, whose new editor, Bari Weiss, who is with Trump and led a major reform of the news organization, reported that the president plans to sign an executive order naming Vice President JD Vance as the head of the group that will include the head of the Federal Trade Commission as vice chairman.
Trump’s comments fueled doubts about California’s plans and the leadership of Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year, when he announced that the “California fraud investigation. [had] he started.”
In presidential social media, official letters and recent news conferences, Trump administration officials have alleged fraud in child care, hospice care and unemployment benefits.
Last week, the topic came into focus again when Mehmet Oz, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, posted a video accuses Armenian criminal groups of committing widespread fraud in Los Angeles.
That viral video got over 4.5 million views on X.
Oz’s video received strong backlash from California politicians and the local Armenian communitythey jointly alleged that it contained baseless and racist attacks on the Armenian people.
The video shows Oz walking through a part of Van Nuys where he says a $3.5-billion medical fraud has been committed by hospice and home care businesses, which he says is “run, in part, by the Russian mafia in Armenia.”
He also points to the symbols of the Armenian language, referring to them incorrectly as written in cerulean script, and saying that “he realizes that the letters and the language behind me are of that language and highlight the fact that this is a mafia deal for organized crime.”
Newsom filed a civil rights complaint against Oz on Jan. 29, calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the “public statements charged with discrimination and falsehood” made in the video.
On Monday, California Sen. Adam Schiff did the same, calling for an independent review of Oz’s alleged targeting of Armenian American communities.
“Elevating symbols of Armenian culture, language, and identity as an indicator of crime underscores a discriminatory motive that can taint any investigation into fraud and encourage continued demonization of society,” Schiff said in a statement.
Glendale City Council member Ardy Kassakhian said in an interview that Oz’s statements fit into the Trump administration’s playbook of using fraud allegations to sow racial divides.
“This time the focus is on the Armenian people,” he said. “In places like Minnesota, it’s Somali community.”
California has been investigating health care fraud ever since 2020 Los Angeles Times investigation exposed Medicare fraud rampant in the federally misregulated hospice industry.
From 2010 to 2020, hospice facilities in the region increased sixfold, accounting for more than half of the state’s nearly 1,200 Medicare-certified providers, according to a Times analysis of federal health care data.
Most of the providers came from a corridor that ran west from the San Gabriel Valley through the San Fernando Valley, which now has the largest number of hospices in the nation.
The state Department of Justice has charged more than 100 people with hospice-related fraud since 2021 and closed about 280 hospices over the past two years, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
But those hospices that are closed don’t exactly represent the reputation of the larger home health care industry. There are 468 hospices in the Van Nuys area alone, according to the state’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
There are 197 licensed medical practices, including 89 licensed hospices, in one two-story building at 14545 Friar St. in Van Nuys – suggesting a number of fraudulent businesses.
When asked why the number of licensed medical practitioners in Van Nuys and that address is so high, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said the department is committed to fighting fraud and cannot comment on pending investigations.
The recent unrest in Minnesota showed the potential consequences of the allegations leveled by the Trump administration.
Before sending thousands of immigration agents to the Midwest country, Trump had repeatedly cited a fraud case involving child support program funds that included funds for COVID-19 relief.
He used the case, which involved a non-profit organization where many Somalis worked, to discredit the immigrant community, even though the organization was run by a white woman. After the state has become a lightning rod, Gov. Tim Walz withdrew his plans for re-election.
At a news conference Thursday, Bonta described major cases in other states, such as an $11.4 million health care fraud and fraud conspiracy involving a nursing assistant in Florida and an $88.3 million Medicaid fraud case in Ohio involving billing by a pharmacy benefit manager — showing abuse of federal programs isn’t limited to California states — or blue states.
“We know Vance is from Ohio, so maybe he should look in his own backyard before leading an unnecessary political frenzy focused on California,” Bonta said. “We thought we should set the record straight.”
Times staff writers Melody Gutierrez and Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
