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Federal Indictment Charges Oren Shachar in Southern California Hospice Fraud, Identity Theft and Kickback Scheme

Federal Indictment Charges Oren Shachar in Southern California Hospice Fraud, Identity Theft and Kickback Scheme

The 16-count federal case accuses the Van Nuys hospice owner and two alleged associates of conspiracy, health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, unlawful referral payments, trafficking in Medicare identifiers, and spending proceeds connected to fraudulent reimbursement claims WASHINGTON, DC — A federal grand jury indictment charging Oren David Shachar has placed an alleged Southern California hospice operation at the intersection of Medicare fraud, beneficiary exploitation, identity misuse, prohibited referral compensation, and financial concealment. Prosecutors allege that Shachar controlled four hospice businesses whose claims totaled approximately $27,731,000, while Medicare allegedly paid approximately $26,908,000 for services characterized as medically unnecessary, ineligible, misrepresented, unprovided, or secured through illegal kickbacks and bribes. The 16-count case also charges Jeannie Choi and Abraham Shin, whom prosecutors describe as marketers involved during 2025, although the allegations against each person differ substantially by count, time period, transaction, and asserted role. Every charge remains an accusation rather than a finding of guilt, and Shachar, Choi, and Shin retain the presumption of innocence unless prosecutors prove every required element through admissible evidence beyond a reasonable doubt in federal court. Sixteen counts create a detailed charging architecture The Justice Department’s official 23-page federal indictment divides the prosecution into one conspiracy count, eight health care fraud counts, three aggravated identity theft counts, one financial-transaction count, two kickback-payment counts, and one identifier-sale count. That structure matters because a jury could reach different conclusions across the indictment, accepting evidence supporting one alleged payment or claim while rejecting another theory involving medical eligibility, stolen information, corporate responsibility, or proceeds tracing. The charging document also contains three forfeiture allegations that could become relevant only after a qualifying conviction, separating the government’s effort to establish criminal liability from its later attempt to recover proceeds or property connected to proven offenses. Count One alleges a five-year conspiracy Count One alleges that Shachar knowingly conspired with known and unknown participants from no later than February 2021 through at least March 2026 to execute a scheme defrauding Medicare through hospice claims and related conduct. The indictment places Shin’s alleged entry no later than March 2025, while Choi’s asserted participation began no later than May 2025 and continued through at least November 2025, creating materially different periods of alleged involvement. To establish conspiracy, prosecutors must prove knowing agreement rather than mere association, employment, communication, or participation in lawful hospice activity, while each defendant may challenge whether the evidence demonstrates awareness of and voluntary participation in an unlawful objective. Four hospice companies anchor the corporate allegations Prosecutors identify Gentle Touch Hospice Care in Valley Glen, Oxford Hospice Care in Montclair, Art of Hospice in Encino, and Holly Trinity Hospice in Glendale as the four businesses allegedly owned, controlled, or operated by Shachar. The entities entered the government’s chronology at different times, which means corporate filings, Medicare enrollment records, bank authority, payroll information, purchase agreements, office communications, and employee testimony may become essential to establishing actual control during disputed periods. Ownership alone would not prove knowledge of every admission, certification, chart entry, referral, or electronic claim, so prosecutors must connect organizational records with evidence showing how Shachar allegedly directed, authorized, understood, or benefited from the charged conduct. Medicare hospice rules supply the case’s legal foundation Medicare generally treats a beneficiary as terminally ill for hospice purposes when the individual’s life expectancy is six months or less if the illness follows its normal course, together with appropriate physician certification and an informed hospice election. Hospice services focus upon palliation and comfort, including nursing, symptom-management medication, equipment, counseling, therapies, and family support, while the election affects Medicare coverage for treatment intended to cure the illness underlying the terminal prognosis. Because medical prognosis involves professional judgment rather than mathematical certainty, survival beyond six months does not independently establish fraud, although prosecutors may prove criminal falsity through fabricated records, nonexistent examinations, knowingly unsupported certifications, or deliberate concealment of material facts. Enrollment forms could help prosecutors address knowledge The indictment alleges that Shachar submitted at least 11 Medicare enrollment applications certifying that his hospices would bill only for medically necessary services provided as represented and would not base claims upon illegal kickbacks or bribes. Prosecutors may use those certifications to argue that Shachar understood the conditions governing reimbursement before the challenged claims were submitted, particularly if other communications or payment records demonstrate conduct inconsistent with the representations he allegedly signed. Defense counsel can respond that standardized enrollment language proves awareness of general rules rather than knowledge of particular clinical errors, employee misconduct, marketer activity, or inaccurate entries created later within decentralized hospice operations serving multiple beneficiaries. Counts Two through Nine identify eight alleged fraud executions The eight substantive health care fraud counts identify particular dates, hospice companies, abbreviated beneficiary names, claim numbers, billed amounts, and defendants, transforming the indictment’s broad narrative into transactions prosecutors must establish individually through reliable evidence. Counts Two through Six name Shachar alone and concern claims dated between August 2023 and March 2025, while Counts Seven through Nine name Shachar, Choi, and Shin and concern three later claims submitted during 2025. The listed claim amounts range from approximately $220 to $6,270, demonstrating that the substantive counts function as selected executions of the alleged scheme rather than a transaction-by-transaction accounting of the entire headline loss calculation. The $27.7 million total does not decide the selected counts Prosecutors allege that the four hospices submitted approximately $27.731 million and received approximately $26.908 million, but those aggregate figures cannot replace proof that each charged execution involved materially false representations, knowing conduct, and a federal health care benefit program. Claims analysts may explain how investigators classified the larger universe of reimbursements, while defense experts can examine whether government calculations included legitimate patients, compensable services, coding corrections, clinical disputes, or payments disconnected from the charged conduct. Jurors must therefore distinguish evidence offered to describe scope from evidence proving liability, because a large aggregate can convey seriousness and pattern without demonstrating that every included claim was fraudulent or attributable to a particular defendant. Living beneficiaries form the first alleged patient

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