LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Attorney’s Office in California on Thursday announced the arrest of eight individuals accused of health care fraud — including owners of hospices that, according to the federal government, billed taxpayers millions of dollars to serve the “dying.”
The eight defendants include three nurses, a chiropractor, and a psychologist. They are being accused of defrauding the nation’s health care system out of more than $50 million — including by running “sham hospice care facilities that bilked Medicare by using people without terminal illnesses as beneficiaries.”
According to the Justice Department, six of the defendants are expected to make their initial appearance Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Another defendant is expected to make his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Idaho.
“We are enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for…
These frauds exploit emotional vulnerability and trust rather than technical weaknesses.
- Romance Scams: Scammers build long-term online relationships with victims, eventually fabricating a “crisis” (medical emergency, legal trouble, or travel costs) that requires the victim to send money.
- Pig Butchering: A hybrid scam where the criminal builds a romantic or platonic relationship to eventually “tutor” the victim in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment.