Dr Oz’s latest conspiracy theory says that the “Russian Armenia mafia” is running fake hospice centers in LA, and Gavin Newsom is taking legal action, as many of the businesses Oz highlights aren’t even hospice care.
In the run-up to the brutal and deadly ICE operations in Minneapolis, it is probably not just a coincidence that in the weeks beforehand, right-wing media embraced some YouTuber's conspiracy theory about supposed child care fraud by Somali-run day care centers in that city. The story did not really break through to the mainstream press, because it completely fell apart once any sensible scrutiny was applied. But the yarn was still a blockbuster in the echo chamber of the wingnutosphere, and remains prominent in Team Trump’s talking points.
Third-rate TV personality and now Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services chief Dr Mehmet Oz just tried to do a sequel version of this viral ‘gotcha video,’ and alleges similar fraud by immigrants in LA’s Van Nuys neighborhood. But the New York Times reports that California Governor Gavin Newsom has filed a civil rights complaint against Dr Oz over the video, saying that Oz “spewed baseless and racially charged allegations” against Armenian-Americans.
Indeed, Oz makes some pretty inflammatory claims that the Russian mob is controlling dozens of Armenian-run LA hospice centers. But like a bottle of non-alcoholic whiskey, Oz has “zero proof.”
L.A. County has become an epicenter for health care fraud in America. Criminals have corrupted the system so much that fraud is now almost expected. President Trump has made it clear: we will not tolerate the patient harm or taxpayer funded theft any longer. More to come. pic.twitter.com/JOp8ltimq8
— DrOzCMS (@DrOzCMS) January 27, 2026
Dr Oz’s video posted Tuesday is seen above. “In this four-block area in Los Angeles, there are 42 hospices,” Oz claims citing no evidence. “These guys stole $16 million, and listen carefully, the main guy went to jail for two years, for stealing $16 million. Which is a good trade-off for a lot of folks.”
Oz also does not cite which case he is referring to. I found one case matching these $16 million Medicare hospice fraud details, wherein the main defendant was sentenced to five years in prison.
But Oz’s wildest claims are where he declares “It’s run, quite a bit of it, by the Russian Armenian mafia. You’ll notice the lettering and language of it behind me is of that dialect.”
As noted in the Instagram post above, Dr Oz is standing in front of a bakery while alleging that it is a Russian mob sham hospice. That bakery has lost a reported 30% in sales since the video was posted.
Hospice fraud is indeed a thing. As the Bay Area News Group’s report on this points out, the Newsom administration has revoked 280 hospice licenses for fraud in the last four years.
There is no way Gavin Newsom is going to get a favorable ruling in this civil rights complaint. The Trump administration is not going to rule against itself! So maybe Newsom just wants to set a boundary.
Or worse yet, maybe he feels that like in Minnesota, these attacks on immigrant-owned businesses are a prelude to an ICE crackdown that could spiral out of control.
Image: @DrOzCMS via Twitter
