Federal agents and prosecutors under the Trump administration announced charges Thursday in a sweeping group of California health care fraud cases involving more than $1.8 billion in allegedly fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare, private insurers, and other programs. The action targeted 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, as reported [1] by The Gateway Pundit.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald led the Justice Department announcement. Prosecutors said the cases included the largest substance abuse treatment fraud scheme the department has ever prosecuted.
The other allegations involved unnecessary invasive artery procedures that injured patients and hospice operations that enrolled beneficiaries who were not terminally ill. Eight defendants were arrested, while others were charged and expected to appear in court.
One case centers on an alleged father-and-son operation and recruiters from Texas accused of trafficking vulnerable people to Southern California for sham treatment. According to the Justice Department, the targets included homeless people and individuals participating in recovery programs.
Nathan Young, 39, and his father, David Young, 71, both of Los Angeles, were charged alongside Honey Phipps, 42, and Cody Phipps, 36, of Greenville, Texas. Prosecutors allege the four participated in a years-long scheme that billed private insurers more than $1.6 billion.
The defendants allegedly controlled dozens of purported treatment facilities and relied on “body brokers” to lure addicts and unhoused individuals. The inducements allegedly included free flights, apartments, cash, drugs, and other benefits.
Patients were allegedly moved repeatedly through facilities so operators could generate bills regardless of whether treatment was medically necessary. Some patients were reportedly coerced or isolated as the sprawling operation continued.
A fifth defendant, Nicholas Moore, has already pleaded guilty and admitted participating in approximately $199 million in claims. McDonald delivered a blunt assessment of the alleged operation: “This was not treatment, it was not recovery. It was exploitation.”
Federal prosecutors also charged cardiothoracic surgeon Harold Tabaie, 78, of Anaheim, and chiropractor Hany Malek, 61, of Tarzana. Their case involves approximately $134 million in Medicare billings for allegedly unnecessary atherectomy procedures, which are invasive operations used to remove plaque.
The procedures were allegedly performed on patients who did not need them. Some patients were harmed and reportedly experienced extreme pain and repeated procedures, while Malek allegedly posed as a physician to direct patients into the operation.
Separate hospice fraud schemes involved more than $138 million and allegedly enrolled Medicare beneficiaries who were not terminally ill. Prosecutors said the operations billed for services that were either unnecessary or never provided.
Geoffrey Jimenez, 60, of Los Angeles, was charged in an operation involving Transitions Hospice and more than a dozen other entities. One facility had an 85% discharge rate involving patients who did not die, more than four times the national average.
Physician Richard Keech, 83, of Torrance, was also charged for allegedly certifying patients who were not terminally ill. Those certifications were part of the wider hospice allegations unveiled by federal authorities.
Essayli, who has repeatedly called attention to California’s fraud problem, condemned medical professionals accused of abusing their positions. He said it is “especially egregious when doctors and other health care professionals, who pledged to do no harm, resort to petty greed and criminality.”
Essayli has previously summed up the state’s problem with an unsparing observation: “California does fraud best.” The latest charges provide federal prosecutors with another major test of that grim assessment.
FBI Director Kash Patel linked the action to the broader White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Patel said that under President Trump’s leadership, “stealing from American taxpayers will no longer be tolerated.”
Early this morning, the FBI and our partners arrested 8 of 15 defendants in Southern California, Dallas and Chicago, for their roles in health care schemes that collectively resulted in $2 billion in fraudulent claims to government and private health care programs, including sham substance abuse treatment programs, unnecessary artery treatments, and bogus hospice services. Two of the 15 defendants were arrested last week.
“Today the FBI and our partners executed 8 arrests, with 7 additional defendants charged, after the subjects involved allegedly orchestrated a multi-year healthcare fraud scheme resulting in $1.8 billion in losses,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “The defendants – including medical professionals – made fraudulent claims to steal from taxpayer funded healthcare and insurance programs, including substance abuse treatment programs, hospice care, and Medicare programs in the Los Angeles area designed to help the most vulnerable. Under President Trump’s leadership with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, stealing from American taxpayers will no longer be tolerated in this country. This FBI will continue to move aggressively with our Department of Justice to dismantle fraud networks stealing from hard working taxpayers.”
“Healthcare fraud cheats American taxpayers and health care programs out of billions of dollars,” said Patrick Grandy, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to do everything in our power to safeguard our government health care programs and the taxpayers picking up the bill.”
@IRS_CI @USAO_LosAngeles @HHS @DEALosAngeles
Additional details: https://t.co/Xw7KgVw5tW
— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) October 22, 2026 [2]