Federal prosecutors charged 15 people in Los Angeles-area health care schemes the department put at $2 billion in claims.

Thursday's charging documents are the accusation for most of the 15. Nicholas Moore has already pleaded guilty, and the release says Thomas Steven Mladinich admitted the kickback payments in a plea agreement. Those two outcomes are not the charges against the other 13. The $2 billion figure is what the department said was billed. Patel's $1.8 billion is what he called losses. Neither number is a restitution order.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, that prosecutors charged 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, in health care fraud schemes that collectively resulted in $2 billion in fraudulent claims to government and private programs. The release splits that into more than $1.6 billion billed for sham substance-abuse treatment, $134 million billed to Medicare for unnecessary atherectomy procedures, and more than $138 million billed to Medicare in three hospice schemes for patients who were not terminally ill. It also describes a separate Medi-Cal pharmacy case of nearly $270 million. FBI Director Kash Patel, quoted in the same release, said the FBI and its partners made 8 arrests Thursday, with 7 additional defendants charged, in a scheme resulting in $1.8 billion in losses. Fox News reported the department charged 15 people over $1.8 billion in fraudulent claims, and its lede said the schemes involved stealing nearly $2 billion. CBS Los Angeles used the $2 billion claims figure. Fox News reported predawn raids across Southern California. The release says eight defendants were arrested Thursday, that five of them were expected to make initial appearances that afternoon in federal court in downtown Los Angeles, that two were expected in the Northern District of Texas, and that one was expected in the Northern District of Illinois. CBS Los Angeles reported the eight arrests were in Los Angeles. The release does not put all eight in that city.

The largest case, as the department described it, charges Nathan Young, 39, also known as Pablo, and David Young, 71, also known as Sancho Lopez, both of Los Angeles, with Honey Phipps, 42, and Cody Phipps, 36, both of Greenville, Texas. The release says the father and son controlled dozens of purported treatment companies and directed body brokers, including the Phippses, to recruit people who were homeless, in poverty, or in support groups, and to favor insurance policies that paid the most. It says patients were offered flights, money, apartments, hotels, cars, gift cards, marijuana, cigarettes, and drugs, and that once they arrived many of the promises were empty. Premium patients, it says, got hotels and dinners. Others lived in housing the release describes as cramped, unsanitary, and derelict. The department says the Youngs recycled patients through facilities, told employees to coach symptoms, and in some cases encouraged drug or alcohol use so a person would qualify for detox. It says they directed that patients who tried to leave be drugged "to knock the client out," and that when Nathan Young was told a premium patient wanted to leave detox so he could smoke weed, Young instructed that the patient be given what he wanted, off site, to keep him there. Therapy, the release says, was Zoom sessions with more than 100 people who only had to turn on a camera. The four are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to violate the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act, three counts of health care fraud, and two counts of violating that act. Nathan and David Young face five more health care fraud counts and four more counts of violating that act. Nicholas Moore, 33, of North Myrtle Beach, North Carolina, has pleaded guilty to a superseding information charging conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. The release says he managed facilities for the Youngs and admitted assisting in $199 million in fraudulent claims.

A separate indictment charges Dr. Harold Tabaie, 78, of Anaheim, a cardiothoracic surgeon, and Hany Malek, 61, of Tarzana, a chiropractor. The case section of the release calls it a $135 million scheme. The opening summary says $134 million was billed to Medicare for unnecessary atherectomies. The release says Malek, posing as a medical doctor, diagnosed arterial disease and recommended the procedure, and that Tabaie performed it on patients who did not have disease in the arteries, including repeat procedures after earlier ones failed. It says some patients had extreme pain. It says the two billed procedures under other providers' names and offered transportation, groceries, gift cards, and utility payments. It says the case was found through data that marked Tabaie as an extreme outlier for atherectomy billing. Both are charged with four counts of health care fraud. Malek is also charged with two counts of bank fraud over a Paycheck Protection Program application that, the release says, falsely claimed a drop in receipts of more than 25 percent and was used for personal expenses, other ventures, family credit cards, and coins. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said, "These charges include the largest sober home fraud scheme the Department has ever prosecuted, and a scheme involving unnecessary invasive procedures that was detected through data analytics." First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in the release, "It is especially egregious when doctors and other health care professionals, who pledged to do no harm, resort to petty greed and criminality," and, "Every dollar drained out of our private and public health insurance systems is one less dollar available to those who truly need it." CBS Los Angeles quoted him at the news conference: "This is the worst type of fraud because you have doctors who have sworn an oath to do no harm, and now they're putting their own financial interests over the interest of other patients," and, "It's the worst kind of harm." The release sentences and the press-conference sentences are not the same quote.

The three hospice cases are Geoffrey Jimenez, 60, of Los Angeles, charged by complaint in a Transitions Hospice scheme the release puts at about $9.8 million billed and more than $8.3 million paid, plus more than a dozen other hospice entities that billed over $107 million; Dr. Richard Keech, 83, of Torrance, charged by information in a scheme the release says caused over $10 million in false Medicare claims through Blue Cross Hospice and Atlantica Management; and Armani Raffi, 59, of Van Nuys, charged by information over four Sherman Oaks hospices, about $21 million billed and over $17.5 million paid. Dr. Hassan Badday, 48, of Los Angeles, and Dr. Robby Ayoub, 52, of Huntington Beach, are charged in separate indictments with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive kickbacks. The release says genetic-testing orders they authorized led ApolloMDx, a Houston lab, to bill more than $4.2 million on Badday's orders and more than $1.3 million on Ayoub's. Thomas Steven Mladinich, 38, of Newport Beach, is charged by information with taking kickbacks for rehab referrals. The release says the information alleges, and the plea agreement admits, payments that included a $33,000 check, and that he received between $150,000 and $250,000. Christina Mareik, 61, also known as Christina Sanchez Hernandez, of Whittier, was charged by complaint in June 2026 and is now charged by indictment with conspiracy and four counts of health care fraud in a Medi-Cal pharmacy scheme the release puts at about $269,130,000 billed and at least about $178,746,000 paid. Dejun Wang, 62, of Walnut, a physician, is charged by indictment with selling prescription samples, including Rybelsus, Ozempic, and Mounjaro, to San Gabriel Valley pharmacy owners. Those are the charging documents. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.