U.S. federal authorities have arrested 59-year-old Israeli citizen Oren David Shachar of Los Angeles, accusing him of leading a Medicare fraud scheme worth about $27 million. Prosecutors say he used the identities of dead people to file false claims for hospice services that were never provided.
The arrest took place last week as part of a nationwide enforcement action announced by U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch. Across the country, hundreds of defendants were charged, and so far this year 455 people have been arrested in 45 states in health care fraud cases involving more than $6.5 billion.
According to the indictment, Shachar controlled at least four hospice facilities in the Los Angeles area, Gentle Touch Hospice in Valley Glen, Oxford Hospice Care in Montclair, Art of Hospice in Encino, and Holly Trinity Hospice in Glendale. Prosecutors say the claims were submitted for patients who were not terminally ill or had already died. The alleged proceeds were funneled into company accounts and used to buy luxury goods, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom, after $15,000 was withdrawn from one hospice as a lease down payment for a car priced at nearly $530,000.
Authorities also allege that Shachar paid funeral home workers Avraham Shin and Ginny Choi for personal information about the deceased, offering $1,000 to $3,000 per identity. He is charged in a 16-count indictment alongside Shin, 66, and Choi, 57. Shin was arrested with Shachar on June 18, and Choi was arrested on Monday and is expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said public health programs are meant to help seniors, the sick, and vulnerable people, not enrich fraudsters. FBI Director Kash Patel said Medicare payments had been stopped for about 1,000 people in the first half of the year, with many cases uncovered in California. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said authorities had shut down 800 hospice facilities in the Los Angeles area and noted that some cases were discovered because patients, in his words, “never died and lived forever.”
