Oren David Shachar, a 59-year-old Israeli living in Los Angeles, is accused of leading a scheme that defrauded Medicare, the U.S. federal health insurance program, of about $27.7 million. He is one of 10 Southern California defendants arrested in what the Justice Department called the largest nationwide U.S. crackdown on health care fraud in history, with 455 suspects charged across the country this week in cases totaling $6.5 billion.
According to the indictment filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Shachar owned and operated four hospice companies in the Los Angeles area and, together with two partners, submitted false claims for medical services that were not eligible for reimbursement. Prosecutors say he recruited elderly patients who were not terminally ill, paid some of them up to $400 a month in cash to remain enrolled, and handed out gifts and benefits including groceries, alcohol, televisions, furniture and massages. He is also alleged to have paid recruiters commissions for each patient they brought in.
The most serious allegation is that Shachar and others bought personal details of dead people, including Social Security and Medicare numbers, through a funeral home employee. Prosecutors say they then created fake medical files after the fact, making it appear the dead people had been examined while alive and diagnosed as hospice-eligible terminal patients, so claims could be filed in their names.
Shachar and his two alleged partners were arrested last week. He denies the charges. The indictment accuses him of health care fraud conspiracy, Medicare fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and health care kickback offenses. Prosecutors say the companies under his control billed Medicare about $26.9 million between 2021 and 2026, and that some of the proceeds were spent on luxury goods, including $15,000 from one hospice account toward the lease purchase of a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Federal prosecutors also said they would seek forfeiture of property bought with the stolen money, or compensation for any such assets already sold or disposed of.
