Oren David Shachar, a 59–year–old Israeli resident of Los Angeles, is accused of heading a network that defrauded Medicare, the federal government insurance program of the United States, of approximately $27.7 million.
Shachar is one of ten defendants from Southern California who were arrested as part of the largest nationwide enforcement operation in United States history against American healthcare system fraud. The US Department of Justice announced this week that within the framework of the operation, indictments were filed against 455 suspects across the country for fraud totaling $6.5 billion.
According to the indictment, Shachar owned and operated four hospice companies for the care of terminally ill patients in the Los Angeles area. He is accused of paying bribes to patient recruiters, giving money and gifts to elderly people so they would join programs under his ownership, and even registering patients who were not terminally ill at all.
According to the indictment filed in the Federal Court of the Central District of California in Los Angeles, Shachar, along with two other partners, operated four hospice institutions in Southern California and submitted false claims to the American government for medical services that were not eligible for funding. Shachar and his two partners were arrested last week. He denies the charges against him.
The prosecution claims that Shachar recruited elderly patients who were not terminally ill, paid them up to $400 a month in cash to remain registered in institutions under his ownership, and even gave them various gifts and benefits, including groceries, alcohol, televisions, furniture, and even massages. It is further alleged that he paid commissions to patient recruiters for each patient referred to him.
The most shocking part of the indictment concerns the allegation according to which Shachar and his people purchased personal details of deceased individuals, including Social Security numbers and Medicare numbers, through a funeral home employee. According to the prosecution, after receiving the information, they retroactively created forged medical files, as if those people had been examined while they were alive and diagnosed as terminally ill patients eligible for hospice services. Thus, as alleged, financial claims were submitted even for people who had already passed away.
The indictment attributes to Shachar conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, Medicare fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and healthcare bribery offenses. According to the documents, between the years 2021 and 2026, claims totaling approximately $27.7 million, as stated, were submitted through the companies under his control, out of which the Medicare program paid approximately $26.9 million.
In addition, the prosecution claims that part of the fraud funds were used to purchase luxury goods. In one of the charges, it is alleged that Shachar transferred $15,000 from an account of one of the hospices under his ownership as a payment for a leasing transaction to purchase a luxury Rolls–Royce Phantom car.
Todd Blanche, the Acting Attorney General of the United States, and the prosecutors in the case have already informed the court concurrently with the filing of the indictment that they will seek to forfeit any property Shachar purchased with the embezzled funds, or to compensate the American treasury for such property that he has already managed to sell or dispose of.