We all know how the current fraud investigations in Minnesota are being characterized. It’s not that there are actually billions being looted by criminals, a majority of whom have turned out to be of a certain ethnic minority, who have only recently arrived in this country.
And it’s not that when one instance of fraud is uncovered that it hasn’t led to the unraveling of a whole ball of twine connected to that single thread, and majority of which is deeply embedded in a recently arrived ethnic community that has resisted the assimilation of other refugee groups and has maintained significant financial ties to the motherland.
The only reason for expanding the fraud investigations, according to Minnesota elected officials and leading members of that ethnic community, was not that fraud wasn’t occurring – because it demonstrably was and still is – but that the fraudsters were brown.
They are also kind of different, so they are resented by white supremacists, which means that the community has a special protected status. Minnesota has certainly provided one.
That they are seemingly looting the crap out of American taxpayers should have nothing to do with anything.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES MAKE THEM SPECIAL – NOW GO AWAY
As reporting coming out of Maine and Ohio is beginning to show, the fraud isn’t confined to Minnesota. It’s only that they have the most spectacular number in their various cases so far.
The queen bee for investigation, however impressive the other totals are at the moment, is going to be Gavin Newsom’s Hotel California – where your tax dollars check in but never leave.
Dr Mehmet Oz, the heart surgeon and celebrity who was named administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has been on a hunt for waste, fraud, and abuse of Medicare/Medicaid since taking over his position in mid-April of last year. He has already highlighted a most curious $400M Medicaid tab billed from an old Minnesota factory building.
…DR. MEHMET OZ: Behind me is the Griggs-Midway building. It looks like a factory because it was a linen factory. They made cloth back there, and it was converted to an office building. You’ll notice all those little signs there — there are tons of businesses inside.
Roughly 400 Medicaid businesses were started in the building behind me over the last several years. They generated about $380 million of billing that you, the taxpayer, were putting up. That means roughly every business had a million dollars of billing.
It’s an industrial area. There’s no reason that you have a mother bring her child. You can’t imagine getting extra business support. An autistic child probably wouldn’t want to come here. You hear the noise. It’s just not a hospitable place.
The question is, how is it possible 400 businesses billing almost $400 million were able to thrive here? What did the owener of this building think was happeing inside? Why did no one in the state think this was a concern?
Inquiring minds do want to know.
As late as two weeks ago, he had been tasked by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with investigating medical-related fraud within his department’s purview in California, specifically Los Angeles.
…“The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has an extensive history of digging deeper into matters where program integrity has been compromised. This letter is crucial in our commitment to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health care programs,” said Chairmen Guthrie, Joyce, and Griffith. “Republicans have spent much of this Congress furthering legislation to protect our most vulnerable Americans—especially seniors, but our work is not done. Continued oversight is crucial to uphold the integrity of programs that serve our most vulnerable populations. We applaud the ongoing work being conducted by HHS-OIG in cracking down on the fraud that has occurred, and we look forward to addressing the larger-scale scheme that is draining public resources from Americans who need these services the most.”
“Medicare home health and hospice fraud directly undermines the safety and reliability of care for America’s most vulnerable seniors. Auditors have reported an unprecedented jump in home health and hospice fraud in Los Angeles County, California – including one report showing 112 different hospices located at the same physical address. With $1.2 billion in improper payments in home health claims and the Inspector General reporting $198 million in suspected hospice fraud, Gavin Newsom’s California could just as well be another Minnesota,” said Chairman Smith. “The Ways and Means Committee will not hesitate to use our broad oversight authority to get to the bottom of this and protect taxpayers and vulnerable patients against these bad actors.”
BACKGROUND:
Evidence has strongly suggested large-scale Medicare fraud involving home health agencies (HHA) and hospice agencies in Los Angeles County, California, noting that such practices not only drain public resources but also compromise the quality of care provided to patients, especially those most vulnerable populations.
Oz took a little trip out west himself this week to illustrate what he had found in one four-block area of Los Angeles.
We’re being robbed folks 💥
FRAUD 🚨 Dr Oz found (42) hospices in a (4) block area in Van Nuys (CA) that soaked the U.S taxpayer out of ($16M) dollars
This time it’s not Somali’s.. it’s Russians
All being uncovered bc Nick Shirley and David Wheaton said, enough is enough pic.twitter.com/459Tjq7mja
— @Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) January 28, 2026
There is, said the doctor, a Russian mob-Armenian operation going on where 42 hospice centers were supposedly operating in this four-block area of LA.
That does imply quite a few dead and/or dying people, as he noted.
These ‘businesses’ skimmed $16M from Health and Human Services (HHS) for the hospice services they supposedly provided.
Instead of being properly horrified, the reaction had much the same defensive tenor as the Minnesotans defending those scamsters who make up their Somali pirate population.
The twist in these accusations of racism is a little different, though, and goes much further back in ethnic conflict.
You see, Dr Oz is of Turkish extraction, and there has been much blood spilt between Turks and Armenians since the latter part of the 1800s. Most horribly in the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, when basically the entire population of Turkish Armenians was wiped out. That ghastly episode is often referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century, which is God awful in itself.
Those memories and ethnic conflicts still run deep to this day, and the accusation steeped in it burst immediately to the surface within minutes of Dr Oz’s report.
No one I could find was denying the fraud. There are only racism accusations against Oz for pointing out that Armenians did it, thanks purely to his Turkish heritage.
Oz has only pointed out Armenian fraud because he is Turkish.
The California Armenian Legislative Caucus Foundation condemns Dr. Oz for targeting Armenian American-owned businesses in California with accusations of fraud. In a recent video clip, Dr. Oz is seen cruising through Los Angeles and implying that Armenian-owned businesses are connected to organized crime and so-called “Armenian mafia “fraud schemes.
Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena), chair of the California Armenian Legislative Caucus Foundation, said Oz’s remarks were both misleading and inflammatory.
“Dr. Oz knows a thing or two about fraud. He’s made millions promoting magic pills and miracle cures, betraying the Americans who trusted him. The Trump Administration is stripping healthcare benefits from millions of Americans while Dr. Oz is cruising around Los Angeles demonizing the Armenian community. Healthcare fraud is a real problem, and it starts from the top.”
Personally, I think he took it easy, starting with $16M. It didn’t take me two shakes to find a recently adjudicated Medicare/hospice/radiology fraud case with only two defendants for fifty-four million dollars, and the surnames are Armenian with a Russian bagman who’s fled the country.
I don’t know – sounds exactly like the Russian mob-Armenian connection that OZ is talking about in his video, just a buttload more profitable.
A fraudster has pleaded guilty to charges he took part in a $54 million Medicare scam that involved radiology and other healthcare services.
Alex Alexsanian, 48, of Burbank, California, entered a plea to one count of money laundering conspiracy on Jan. 20. He was previously arrested by Golden State authorities in October 2024 for participating in a wide-ranging plot to bilk Medicare for imaging services that were never performed.
Sentencing is slated for April 28, with Alexsanian potentially facing up to 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. His accomplice Sophia Shaklian, 38, of Los Angeles, previously pleaded guilty in November and could spend up to 10 years in jail, with her sentencing slated for March, local media reports.
As detailed previously, between 2019 and 2024, Shaklian managed and submitted claims for seven healthcare providers enrolled in Medicare across Los Angeles County. Among them were a hospice company she owned, according to the original indictment. The scheme also involved multiple diagnostic imaging companies—Saint Gorge Radiology in Sylmar; Hope Diagnostics in North Hollywood; Direct Imaging & Diagnostics and Lab One, both in Hollywood; and Labtech and Lifescan Diagnostics in Claremont.
The claims amounted to more than $54 million for unnecessary services that were never provided. In total, the pair pocketed $23 million, with Shaklian laundering Medicare funds paid to her hospice business by transferring them to accounts in the name of “Varsenic Babaian,” a fake identity.
Alexsanian purportedly directed a previously unidentified foreign national to open Saint Gorge Radiology and acquire Console Hospice, in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. The accomplice, now identified as Dmytro Malakhov, then provided control of those two companies and their corresponding bank accounts to Alexsanian. He and Malakhov (who soon fled the country) subsequently submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for services never provided by the two companies. They then laundered the reimbursements through the fake “Babaian” identity, using the money to buy $6 million in gold bars and coins, among other purchases.
Does that mean it’s ONLY Armenians and Russians who ever defraud the government in California?
Of course not. But it absolutely bolsters Oz’s case for the connection.
But charges of racism get all the good press, particularly when you’ve got Governor Gavin Newsom, a chief executive who has overseen the disappearance of more of our national treasure than Han Solo could ever imagine.
So naturally, the oleaginous Randall Flagg Lite, sensing an opening for more racial pandering and grievance baiting to distract from his own inadequacies, goes into attack mode.
…Gov. Newsom’s press office issued a scathing response on X stating, “Amazing to watch Dr. Oz cosplay as a fraud fighter for an effort the STATE launched years ago—back when he was busy pitching ‘miracle’ horse supplements to insomniacs on late-night TV.”
“Our office is reviewing reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California recently—making racially charged claims of fraud… Given the historic sensitivities involved, we are taking these allegations seriously,” the governor’s office added.
It does seem that Oz did some of his piece underneath a bakery sign that the owner says has now seen a fall-off in business because of the segment, although the owner’s complaints about Russian-Armenians being mentioned falls a little flat.
Newsom’s jumped on that, too.
…The lettering behind Oz in the video belongs to the sign for Sherman Way Marketplace, a family-owned bakery and grocery store operated by Movses Bislamyan. He says the business has nothing to do with the criminal claims and has instead been harmed by the association.
“I am really disappointed,” Bislamyan said. “Recording my signs, my location, and talking about some kind of fraud going on here. We have nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the grocery store.”
Much of the twominute video shows Oz positioned directly beneath the bakery’s sign, including a zoomedin shot as he states, “It also highlights the fact that this is an organized crime mafia deal.”
Bislamyan rejected that characterization.
“There is no Armenian mafia going on here. We’re just hard-working businessmen,” he said. “I don’t understand why he’s mentioning just Armenians… especially Russian Armenians.“
What all of this is starting to stitch together, though, is a tale of immigrant communities that have managed to remain cohesive as opposed to assimilate, and create their own thriving little business of raping the government. Had they mostly dispersed into the general population over several generations, it wouldn’t be quite so easy to run these underground economies built on the backs of American taxpayers.
These larcenous enclaves also wouldn’t be so easy for graft-inclined, desperate elected officials who want to remain in power to protect.
Come to think of it, that was an old Mafia saying, too – one (dirty) hand washes the other.
No cultural differences among thieves.
Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!
