Newsom files civil rights complaint accusing Dr. Oz of targeting Armenian Americans
California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a civil rights complaint against Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump's head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, accusing him of discriminating against Armenian Americans.
The filing comes after Dr. Oz, in a video posted to social media, accused the "Russian Armenian Mafia" of running a $3.5 billion hospice care fraud scheme in Los Angeles. After driving around the Van Nuys neighborhood of LA, he stops in a pocket of businesses, claiming one of them was part of a $16 million scheme.
While making the claims, Dr. Oz focuses on a nearby bakery's sign, saying that it is written in the same dialect used by the Russian Armenian Mafia.
"There's roughly $3.5 billlion of fraud taking place here in Los Angeles, in hospice and home care," Dr. Oz said. "It's run, quite a bit of it, by the Russian Armenian Mafia. You notice the lettering and language behind me is of that dialect. And it also highlights the fact that this is an organized crime, mafia deal."
In the civil rights complaint, Newsom's office called the comments "baseless and racially charged allegations," adding that they "reflect discriminatory animus, and revealed a discriminatory motive that could infect how investigations of alleged fraud are conducted."
"Additionally, Dr.Oz's comments have already caused real world harm, as the bakery targeted by his comments reported a 30% drop in sales after this video's release," Newsom's office wrote in the complaint.
After posting the video, Dr. Oz received sharp criticism from the advocacy organization, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
"Public officials carry a special responsibility to uphold both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution," said Oshin Harootoonian, chairman of ANCA's Western Region. "When enforcement rhetoric drifts toward ethnic generalizations, it weakens civil rights protections and puts entire communities at risk. Armenian Americans, like all Americans, deserve equal justice under law — nothing less."
Los Angeles Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who represents the area, claimed Dr. Oz did not have "genuine concern about fraud" and called his comments "blatant racism."
"Medical fraud is serious. No one is denying that," Councilmember Nazarian said. "Why zoom in on Armenian businesses? Couldn't the point about one fraud case have been made without dragging an entire community into it?"
CBS LA reached out to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but we have not received a response.
On Wednesday, a day before filing the civil rights complaint, Newsom's press office said that the state would review the reports that Dr. Oz "targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California."
"Given the historic sensitivities involved, we are taking these allegations seriously," Newsom's press office wrote in a post to X. "Any and all acts of hate have no place in California."
Hours later, Dr. Oz wrote that his office will continue its investigation into healthcare fraud in California.
"If there was a real defense for California's fraud crisis, we'd hear it," Dr. Oz wrote in a post on X. "CMS and law enforcement will keep doing the actual work: going after fraudsters, period."
According to Newsom's office, state Attorney General Rob Bonta has charged 109 people with hospice-related offenses since taking office in 2021. In the same year, Newsom signed a law to ban new hospice licenses because of the concerns surrounding fraud and abuse. His office said they have extended the ban to 2027.