California Hospice Fraud, the Russian Mafia Threat, and the Bill Critics Call the 'Stop Nick Shirley Act'

Nick Shirley on the Shawn Ryan Show 16:30 · Click to play

Citizen journalist Nick Shirley used a sit-down interview on the Shawn Ryan Show to walk through what he describes as one of the largest healthcare fraud ecosystems in the country — and to disclose, for the first time publicly, that a warning he attributes to the Russian mafia was relayed through his mother while he was reporting in Los Angeles.

The allegations center on California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, and a sprawling cluster of hospices and home-health agencies operating in and around Van Nuys, California — a hot zone that has separately been the focus of CBS News investigations, official statements from CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, multiple criminal cases brought by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and a civil rights complaint filed by the office of Governor Gavin Newsom.

But the story of California hospice fraud no longer ends with the alleged crime ring. It now includes the legislative response — a controversial bill known as AB 2624 that Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio has nicknamed the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” authored by Democratic Assemblymember Mia Bonta of Oakland, who is married to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Critics argue the bill would penalize the very citizen journalists exposing the fraud. The bill’s author and supporters say it is a privacy protection measure misrepresented by political opponents.

This is what Shirley alleges, what is independently documented, what the establishment response has looked like, and what remains unverified.

What Nick Shirley Alleges in the Interview

According to Shirley, California’s Medi-Cal budget has roughly doubled in just four years while enrollment barely moved.

He cites a $108 billion budget covering approximately 39.8 million enrollees in 2022, compared to a proposed $222 billion budget in 2026 covering approximately 40 million enrollees — an increase of roughly 100,000 people allegedly accompanied by more than $100 billion in additional spending.

Shirley argues that gap is where much of the alleged fraud is hiding, and points to a state surplus he says has reportedly swung from roughly $100 billion before 2020 to a current deficit he estimates between $20 and $40 billion.

The Alleged Mechanism

Shirley describes the alleged mechanism in plain terms. Medicare beneficiary numbers — the unique identifiers tied to each Medicare-eligible American — are allegedly the prize.

“The most valuable thing to somebody over the age of 65 is their Medicare beneficiary number. And that’s even more valuable to a fraudster than a credit card.” — Nick Shirley

Once obtained, those numbers can allegedly be used to enroll seniors into hospice programs without their knowledge. The first time many alleged victims learn they are listed as hospice patients, Shirley says, is when they go to a doctor seeking a routine procedure or surgery and are told they have been classified as terminally ill and the procedure cannot be performed.

He stops short of citing a death toll, saying he does not have exact numbers, but characterizes the alleged scheme as putting unsuspecting seniors directly in clinical harm’s way.

The Geographic Concentration

Shirley alleges the geographic concentration is staggering. He claims that roughly one-third of all hospices in the United States are located in Los Angeles County, and that one out of every ten dollars spent on home healthcare nationwide allegedly flows into LA County.

He cites his own field reporting in a roughly two-square-mile section of Van Nuys, where he says he documented:

• Buildings containing as many as 89 hospices in a single structure
• Another with about 15 hospices
• Another with around 8 hospices
• Roughly 10 different buildings in that small area

The visual Shirley describes is bleak. He says the offices are typically tiny rooms — he describes one as roughly 8 by 8 feet — often unstaffed, with no patients on premises because hospice care is delivered in the home.

He alleges the fraud is largely paper-based: bills get submitted to the state under stolen Medicare beneficiary numbers, and the state allegedly pays out without verifying that the listed patients exist or are receiving care. He contrasts the modest office spaces with the parking lots outside, which he claims he saw filled with luxury vehicles including BMW M8 Competitions, Mercedes G-Wagons, Cybertrucks, and Maybachs allegedly priced around $200,000.

The Alleged Russian Mafia Warning

The most jarring portion of Shirley’s interview concerns a phone call he says his mother received.

According to Shirley, an acquaintance of his mother contacted her after being told by people identified as connected to the Russian mafia that she should pass along a message: keep Nick away from their alleged operations.

“The Russian mafia wants me to tell you to make sure Nick doesn’t come poking around our fraud.” — Nick Shirley, recounting what he says his mother was told

Shirley says the call happened while he was actively reporting in Los Angeles. He distinguishes it from the more public threats he says he received from individuals connected to the Somali fraud allegations he previously covered, noting that the alleged Armenian and Russian networks operate, in his telling, far more quietly. He says this is the first interview in which he has discussed that alleged threat publicly.

Shirley attributes the alleged scheme primarily to Russian and Armenian organized crime, and credits Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, with making similar public allegations.

He frames the broader stakes in tax-dollar terms. Citing estimates that 3 to 7 percent of every federal tax dollar in the United States goes to fraud, Shirley calculates that the average American works roughly 25 days per year solely to pay for fraudulent claims.

What Independent Reporting Has Documented

Shirley is not the only reporter on this beat. Several of the same buildings, numbers, and alleged actors appear in mainstream investigations published before the Shawn Ryan interview aired.

The 89-Hospice Building Has a Name

According to a CBS News investigation, the Van Nuys building in question is the Merabi Professional Medical Plaza on Friar Street, a three-story 32,000-square-foot structure that CBS dubbed “ground zero” for hospice fraud.

Federal records reviewed by CBS show regulators visited the building between 2021 and 2025 and documented nearly 400 violations across roughly 75 companies inside. CBS reported finding 89 hospice companies registered to that single address, with 72 of them displaying at least three of six fraud indicators tracked by state auditors.

Fox News Digital separately reviewed records showing 50 hospice companies and 97 home-health agencies registered to the same building — 147 healthcare entities at one address.

The Clustering Goes Beyond One Building

CBS News reported approximately 500 hospices operating within a three-mile radius of the Merabi Plaza, with 137 of them on Van Nuys Boulevard alone.

California Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo (R-Tulare) inspected a separate Van Nuys address that allegedly houses 197 hospice agencies and wrote a letter to Governor Newsom citing the building as “dilapidated” and lacking basic accessibility infrastructure.

The State Itself Acknowledges a Fraud Problem

A 2022 California State Auditor report flagged a 1,500% increase in hospice agencies in Los Angeles County since 2010, and noted that LA County had roughly six-and-a-half times the nationwide average number of hospice agencies relative to its aged population in 2019.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has publicly stated that hospice fraud has become “an epidemic” in the state. Per the Governor’s office:

• More than 280 hospice licenses revoked over the past two years
• An additional 300 providers under investigation
• 284 individuals arrested in connection with hospice fraud
• A statewide moratorium on new hospice licenses remains in effect

The April 2026 Busts

April 9, 2026 — California state action. Newsom and Bonta jointly announced criminal charges against organized crime groups that allegedly used stolen identities to defraud Medi-Cal hospice services in Los Angeles. The scheme allegedly involved 14 fraudulent hospice providers and resulted in more than $267 million in improper claims paid with state and federal funds.

April 3, 2026 — federal arrests. Federal officials arrested eight individuals in connection with healthcare fraud schemes totaling approximately $50 million in the Los Angeles area. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, five of those cases involved hospice centers in Glendale, Artesia, Tarzana, and Simi Valley that allegedly billed Medicare for patients who were not terminally ill and did not qualify for hospice services.

The largest case involved an Artesia-based hospice center whose owner allegedly submitted more than $9 million in fraudulent hospice claims and allegedly received more than $8.5 million in payments.

Dr. Oz’s Specific Allegations Match Shirley’s Framing

In a January 2026 video filmed in front of an Armenian bakery in Los Angeles, Dr. Oz alleged that approximately $3.5 billion in hospice and home-health care fraud has occurred in Los Angeles County alone, attributing “quite a bit of it” to the “Russian Armenian mafia.”

He has separately stated that LA County contains nearly 2,000 hospices and that he believes roughly half could be fraudulent. He has cited a 1,000% increase in operators and pointed to a four-block radius in Van Nuys allegedly containing 42 hospices.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has separately referenced the $3.5 billion figure in public statements about LA hospice fraud.

The substance Shirley describes in his interview tracks closely with the facts laid out in those independent investigations. The novel disclosure in the Shawn Ryan interview is the alleged threat against his mother, which has not been independently corroborated.

AB 2624 and the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” Controversy

In February 2026, California Democratic Assemblymember Mia Bonta — wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta — introduced Assembly Bill 2624. The bill is officially titled “Privacy for immigration support services providers.”

What the Bill Actually Does

Per the bill’s text and Bonta’s office fact sheet, AB 2624 extends California’s existing Safe at Home program — originally created in 1999 to protect victims of domestic violence — to cover employees and volunteers of organizations providing “designated immigration support services,” including legal aid, healthcare, and case management services to immigrants.

Participants would receive substitute mailing addresses to keep their real addresses concealed in public records. The bill also restricts publishing program participants’ images, personal information, or home addresses online if done with intent to threaten.

The Critics’ Argument

Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) publicly nicknamed the bill the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” and argued it would chill citizen journalism investigations into taxpayer-funded organizations.

“AB 2624 can only be described as the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act’ — a bill designed to silence citizen journalists exposing fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.” — Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego)

Republican Assemblymember Josh Hoover stated at a GOP press conference that “not only are we unwilling to investigate fraud, but our Legislature is quite literally moving in the opposite direction.”

Independent California Congressman Kevin Kiley told NewsNation: “they’re proactively trying not to stop the fraud itself but to stop those who are exposing the fraud.”

Shirley himself published a roughly 25-minute video confronting California Democratic legislators in person about the bill, including approaching Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Salinas), who Shirley says told him “I don’t know anything about it” before declining to answer further questions.

“If this bill were to get passed, instead of going after the fraudsters, they’re trying to make it criminal to go after the people that are committing this fraud.” — Nick Shirley, on AB 2624

The Author’s Defense

Assemblymember Mia Bonta has defended the bill, stating it is intended to prevent harassment and violence against immigrant service providers — not to limit lawful speech.

Bonta’s office published a fact sheet stating the bill “does not create any new penalties or expand existing penalties; it simply extends the existing framework to immigration service providers, their employees, volunteers, and other specified individuals.” Bonta has reported receiving death threats over the proposal and told a public safety hearing: “I can’t imagine how it must be for immigrant service providers who are doing their job every single day to have to deal with this level of hate.”

What Snopes Found

Snopes has noted in a fact-check that the literal text of AB 2624 does not mention Shirley, journalism, investigations, or fraud — and that the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” label originated with DeMaio rather than the bill’s authors. Snopes rated the claim that AB 2624 is “called the Stop Nick Shirley Act to criminalize investigative journalism” as false on those grounds, while acknowledging the bill exists, the nickname exists, and the controversy is real.

As of publication, AB 2624 had passed the Assembly’s public safety committee and was advancing through the California Legislature.

How the Alleged Identity-Theft Mechanism Works

This is the part of the interview that matters most for ordinary Medicare beneficiaries, and it is also the part that aligns most closely with documented California Department of Justice and Department of Health Care Services warnings.

A Medicare beneficiary number is the identifier on a Medicare card. If an alleged fraudster obtains that number, the alleged fraudster can submit billing claims to Medicare or Medi-Cal for services purportedly provided to that beneficiary — including hospice services.

Hospice care, by Medicare’s design, is comfort care for patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live. Once a beneficiary is enrolled in hospice, Medicare typically stops paying for curative treatments tied to the terminal diagnosis, on the assumption that the patient has elected end-of-life care.

If a beneficiary is allegedly enrolled in hospice without their knowledge — for example, because their Medicare number was used in an alleged identity theft scheme — they may not discover the enrollment until they seek medical care for an unrelated condition and are told the procedure has been declined.

Red Flags Published by California’s Department of Justice

• Being offered “free” services like groceries or housekeeping in exchange for your Medicare number
• Discovering a Medicare statement showing charges from a hospice agency you never contacted
• A loved one being enrolled in hospice when they are not terminally ill
• Receiving unexpected mail or calls from hospice agencies you did not contact

The state recommends that anyone who suspects this has happened to them or a loved one report it immediately to DHCS or the Attorney General’s office, and request a copy of their Medicare Summary Notice to review for unfamiliar billing.

Key Facts — All Alleged Unless Otherwise Noted

Frequently Asked Questions

What is hospice fraud?

Hospice fraud generally refers to billing Medicare or Medicaid for hospice services that were not provided, were not medically necessary, or were provided to patients who do not qualify for end-of-life care. According to the California Attorney General’s office, common patterns include enrolling patients who are not terminally ill, paying kickbacks for patient referrals, billing for services never delivered, and using stolen Medicare beneficiary numbers to allegedly enroll patients without their knowledge.

Why are so many alleged hospice fraud cases concentrated in Los Angeles?

A 2022 California State Auditor report documented a 1,500% increase in hospice agencies in LA County since 2010, with the county allegedly containing roughly six-and-a-half times the nationwide average per capita for the elderly population. Auditors flagged “clustering” — large numbers of hospices registered to single buildings with minimal staff or patients — as a major fraud red flag. CBS News later identified the Merabi Professional Medical Plaza on Friar Street as one of the most extreme examples, with 89 hospices registered to a single three-story building.

How do I know if my Medicare number has been used for hospice fraud?

The California Department of Justice recommends checking your Medicare Summary Notice for any hospice-related charges from agencies you did not contact, and being alert to “free services” being offered in exchange for your Medicare number. If you discover unexpected hospice billing, contact 1-800-MEDICARE, the California Department of Health Care Services, or the California Attorney General’s office.

Has anyone been criminally charged in California hospice fraud schemes?

Yes. According to Governor Newsom’s office, 284 individuals have been arrested in connection with hospice fraud, with 109+ criminal charges and 24 civil cases brought by the Attorney General. On April 3, 2026, federal authorities arrested eight individuals in LA-area hospice fraud cases totaling roughly $50 million in alleged claims. On April 9, 2026, California announced charges against organized crime groups behind an alleged $267 million identity-theft scheme involving 14 fraudulent hospice providers.

What is the alleged role of Russian or Armenian organized crime?

Both Nick Shirley and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz have publicly alleged that Russian and Armenian organized crime networks are running portions of the LA County hospice fraud ecosystem. As of publication, these specific organized-crime allegations have not been adjudicated, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California has stated that it does not track whether hospice fraud defendants are alleged to be foreign nationals. The Justice Department brought a separate case in 2010 alleging an “Armenian-American organized crime enterprise” was behind a nationwide healthcare scam with roots in Russia and Armenia.

What is the “Stop Nick Shirley Act”?

“Stop Nick Shirley Act” is a nickname applied by Republican California Assemblymember Carl DeMaio to AB 2624, a bill authored by Democratic Assemblymember Mia Bonta of Oakland. The bill extends California’s existing Safe at Home program — which provides confidential mailing addresses to victims of domestic violence — to cover employees of organizations providing immigration support services. Critics argue the bill could chill citizen journalism investigations into taxpayer-funded immigration-services organizations. Bonta’s office disputes the framing and notes the bill text does not mention journalism. Snopes has fact-checked the claim that the bill is officially called the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” or that it would explicitly criminalize investigative journalism, rating both as false. The bill exists, the controversy is real, and as of publication AB 2624 had passed the Assembly’s public safety committee.

Why This Story Matters Beyond California

If the alleged use of stolen Medicare beneficiary numbers is as widespread as Shirley, Dr. Oz, and CBS News separately suggest, the most damaging element is not the dollar figure — it is the alleged denial of care to unsuspecting seniors. A Medicare beneficiary allegedly enrolled in hospice without their knowledge could be cut off from surgeries and emergency interventions they are clinically entitled to receive.

The financial fraud is the symptom; the alleged denial of care is the underlying harm.

The geographic concentration described by every reporting source — one-third of US hospices allegedly located in a single county, hundreds of agencies allegedly clustered into a few city blocks — is a testable claim. CMS data, state licensing records, and HHS provider databases are public.

The structural question raised by every investigation, including Shirley’s, is why state and federal regulators have not been able to fully stop the bleeding despite years of public warnings from CMS leadership, hundreds of license revocations by the state, and multiple federal indictments.

The legislative response question is sharper. If the most visible policy debate prompted by years of reporting on alleged Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud is a bill restricting what citizen journalists can publish about employees of taxpayer-funded organizations — rather than a bill restructuring how hospice licenses are issued, audited, or revoked — observers will reasonably ask whether the priorities are aligned with the underlying problem.

Defenders of AB 2624 say the privacy concerns are real, that immigrant service providers face genuine harassment, and that existing laws already address legitimate journalism. Critics say the chilling effect is the point.

For Medicare beneficiaries themselves, the operational lesson is simpler:

• Protect your Medicare number with the same vigilance you protect your bank account or Social Security number
• Review your Medicare Summary Notice regularly
• Report any unfamiliar hospice billing immediately

Disclaimer: This article summarizes allegations presented in the linked Shawn Ryan Show interview with Nick Shirley, alongside independently reported information from CBS News, Fox News, Fox Business, KFF Health News, FOX 11 Los Angeles, NewsNation, KPBS Public Media, CalMatters, Snopes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the offices of California Assemblymembers Carl DeMaio, Josh Hoover, Mia Bonta, and Alexandra Macedo, statements made by CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, statements made by California Congressman Kevin Kiley, and statements made on the Joe Rogan Experience. Nothing in this article should be interpreted as a finding of fact against any named individual or entity not formally adjudicated. Named parties are presumed innocent of any criminal wrongdoing unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. Civil allegations remain unproven unless adjudicated. AllegedFraud.com archives citizen journalism and does not independently verify any claims made by content creators. If you are a named party and wish to respond, contact contact@allegedfraud.com.