{"id":265926,"date":"2026-01-30T19:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265926\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T19:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:55:07","slug":"newsom-fights-back-after-dr-oz-accuses-las-armenians-of-healthcare-fraud-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265926\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom fights back after Dr Oz accuses LA\u2019s Armenians of healthcare fraud | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gavin Newsom accused the Trump administration<\/a> official Dr Mehmet Oz of discrimination in a civil rights complaint filed with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).<\/p>\n

Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator, recently visited Los Angeles<\/a> and filmed a video alleging that members of the city\u2019s Armenian community orchestrated large-scale healthcare fraud. The post set off a days-long public quarrel that culminated in the California governor\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office is filing a civil rights complaint seeking an investigation into Dr Oz\u2019s baseless and racist allegations against Armenian Americans in California<\/a>,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

In the complaint filed with the HHS, Newsom\u2019s office argued that Oz\u2019s \u201cracially-charged and false public statements\u201d could discourage people in the targeted community from participation in hospice and home-care programs.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office noted the claims had \u201calready caused real-world harm\u201d by significantly slowing business at an Armenian bakery that is shown in the video.<\/p>\n

Oz and the CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint or the content of the video, and they have not publicly shared details that confirm the fraud being alleged. But the Trump administration has frequently alleged there is widespread fraud in Medicare, Medicaid and other social service programs in Democratic states.<\/p>\n

The conflict began when Oz posted a video online earlier this week in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles pointing to a four-block radius that he said was home to 42 hospices, suggesting potential fraud. He references a business that he says was part of a $16m fraud scheme.<\/p>\n

Then, while standing in front of a building that includes an Armenian bakery, he alleges that roughly $3.5bn in hospice and home care fraud has taken place in Los Angeles and \u201cquite a bit of it\u201d was run by \u201cthe Russian Armenian mafia\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oz, whose parents emigrated to the US from Turkey, describes the Armenian script on the businesses\u2019 signs while the camera pans to the bakery.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou notice the lettering and language behind me is of that dialect,\u201d he says in the video. He also claims there \u201chas not been a lot of attention on these problems\u201d in California.<\/p>\n

Newsom disputed the claims in the video and noted on social media that California had revoked more than 280 hospice licenses and banned new licenses starting in 2022 because of concerns about fraud. Then the two leaders exchanged multiple sharp attacks in a back-and-forth on social media.<\/p>\n

In one post, Newsom said there were \u201chistoric sensitivities\u201d, presumably referencing Oz\u2019s Turkish heritage and the history of conflict and violence between the country and Armenia, and said \u201cany and all acts of hate have no place in California\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response, Oz said: \u201cIf there were a real defense for California\u2019s fraud crisis, we\u2019d hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The feud is one of many that have sprung up between Newsom, seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, and the Republican administration of Trump.<\/p>\n

Newsom and the president have clashed over issues ranging from the Trump administration\u2019s national guard deployment in Los Angeles to the president\u2019s efforts to block California\u2019s 2035 ban on new gas-powered cars, a nationwide first.<\/p>\n

Oz\u2019s video also points to a larger Trump administration effort to spotlight fraud around the country. That effort comes after allegations of fraud involving daycare centers run by Somali Americans in Minneapolis prompted a huge immigration crackdown in the midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests. Two people have been fatally shot in the city by federal agents this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom accused the Trump administration official Dr Mehmet Oz of discrimination in a civil rights complaint filed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-265926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}