Newsom files a civil rights complaint against Dr. Oz over allegations of
hospice fraud
[January 31, 2026]
By JAIMIE DING and ALI SWENSON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is demanding a
civil rights investigation of Dr. Mehmet Oz, saying he discriminated
against Armenians in a video claiming hospice fraud in Los Angeles, the
latest front in the state’s ongoing battle with the Trump
administration.
The Democratic governor's complaint, filed Thursday, came after Oz
posted a video on social media in front of an Armenian bakery in Los
Angeles, alleging that roughly $3.5 billion in hospice and home care
fraud has taken place in the city and “quite a bit of it” was run by
“the Russian Armenian mafia.” Oz is the administrator for the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which certifies hospice providers to
accept patients on government-subsidized health insurance.
Newsom's office argued in the complaint that Oz “spewed baseless and
racially charged allegations" that risked chilling participation in
hospice and home care programs among the community targeted. His office
said the claims had “already caused real-world harm” by dampening
business at an Armenian bakery that is shown in the video.
“Mafia? There is no Armenian mafia going on here. We’re just hardworking
business owners. I don’t understand why he’s mentioning just Armenians,”
Movses Bislamyan, whose family-owned bakery appears in Oz’s video, told
KABC-TV.
Oz in a post on X accused Newsom of trying to change the subject and
failing to talk about Medicare fraud, though Medicare is a federally
administered program.
“The problem isn’t isolated to California, though as far as our team can
tell, it is the worst,” Oz said. He hasn’t shared details about the
fraud being alleged.
Part of effort to highlight fraud
Oz’s video also points to a larger Trump administration effort to
spotlight fraud around the country. That effort comes after allegations
of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in
Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the Midwestern
city, resulting in widespread protests.
Earlier in the week, Newsom acknowledged fraud in hospice care in
California but said the state has been working for years to crack down
on it. He noted he signed a law in 2021 to stop providing new hospice
licenses over fraud concerns and said the state has revoked more than
280 hospice licenses in recent years. Another 300 hospices are being
examined for possible fraud, Newsom’s office said. The state did not
immediately provide a list of all businesses that have had their
licenses revoked.
“We’ve identified and cracked down on hospice fraud for years, taking
real action to protect patients and taxpayers,” Newsom said in a
statement.
Oz's video shows him visiting the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles
and pointing to a four-block radius that he says is home to 42 hospices,
suggesting potential fraud. He references a business that he says was
part of a $16 million fraud scheme. Oz describes the Armenian script on
the businesses' signs while the camera pans to the bakery.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom is seen during the Annual Meeting
of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20,
2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
"You notice the lettering and language behind me is of that dialect,”
says Oz, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Turkey. He also claims
there “has not been a lot of attention on these problems” in California.
Armenian-American leader criticizes Oz
Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of
America, said Oz’s comments invoke “easy stereotypes” about the Armenian
community, which has deep roots in California.
More than 200,000 people of Armenian descent are estimated to live in
Los Angeles County, where April is celebrated as Armenian History Month.
A small section of Los Angeles is known as Little Armenia, and the
suburban city of Glendale, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from where Oz
recorded the video, is a center of the community.
Hamparian said Oz’s connections to Turkey are concerning. That nation's
government does not acknowledge the killing and deportation of Armenians
by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 1900s, known as the Armenian
genocide.
“Things have been dealt with at the state level, prosecutions have been
made,” Hamparian said. “But Dr. Oz is taking this in an entirely
destructive direction by scapegoating, by fear-mongering, by staging the
theatric collective indictment of all Armenians.”
Turkey and Armenia have long been strained by historic grievances and
Turkey’s alliance with Azerbaijan. The neighboring countries have no
formal diplomatic ties, and their joint border has remained closed since
the 1990s, though late last year they agreed to simplify visa procedures
in an effort to normalize ties.
The feud is among many that have sprung up between Newsom, seen as a
potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, and the Republican
administration of President Donald Trump. Newsom and Trump have clashed
over issues ranging from the federal administration’s National Guard
deployment in Los Angeles to the president’s efforts to block
California’s 2035 ban on new gas-powered cars, a nationwide first.
___
Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press reporter Olga R.
Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this story.
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