Oz Takes Fraud War to NYC as Feds Raid Day Care Centers

More than 80 social adult day care providers in New York City received warning letters from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services over questionable billing. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, federal agents showed up at some of their doors. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, the FBI, the NYPD and other agencies delivered letters and conducted searches across the city as part of a federal Medicaid-fraud investigation.

The timing wasn't subtle. Oz appears in a 27-minute documentary, "War on Fraud," set for release Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET on his X account. Fox News Digital said it first obtained the film, which follows him across the country as the Trump administration investigates alleged fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, hospice care and other taxpayer-funded programs.

The New York Searches

An FBI spokesperson said, "FBI New York, along with multiple other law enforcement agencies are conducting law enforcement activity in the area of Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn and other locations around New York City in connection with ongoing federal investigations." The HHS Office of Inspector General also took part in the probe.

Oz pointed to a pattern of red flags: low attendance despite high Medicaid billing, questionable wheelchair-transportation charges, seniors entering without signing in, inconsistent attendance claims and sign-in sheets with future-dated entries. In the documentary, he calls a group of Flushing, Queens, businesses—including a social adult day care center, pharmacy and medical center—a "clubhouse for crooks." He alleges the businesses took seniors' identification numbers and used them to submit fraudulent bills. They recruit seniors, Oz said, "get them in, game the system and they use their ID numbers to charge everybody, 'which means they are charging you.'"

Hospice and Equipment Schemes

The film also targets hospice care. Oz cited roughly 2,000 hospice providers in the Los Angeles area, a concentration he said raised concerns about fraudulent billing. He alleged Russian organized-crime groups were involved in some suspected operations and that patients were enrolled under false pretenses, sometimes by falsely declaring them terminally ill. That could limit patients' access to treatment, he said, while letting operators bill Medicare.

In Delray Beach, Florida, federal prosecutors allege a $3.7 billion Medicare-fraud scheme involving medical-equipment companies that billed for equipment patients hadn't requested or needed. The alleged ringleader fled the country. Turkish authorities captured him, and he returned to South Florida to face federal charges.

"Fraudsters and criminals don't give a s--- about you," Oz says in the video. "They want your money, and they will walk all over your health, sacrifice your life and betray society's trust to get your hard-earned money." HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Deputy Administrator Kim Brandt also appear in the film.

Minnesota and the White House Task Force

Minnesota has become a focus of the broader crackdown. Oz said the state's $250 million "Feeding Our Future" scandal, which drew national attention in 2022, intensified scrutiny of large-scale fraud. Four years on, the scandal has yielded a wave of federal convictions. The White House Task Force on Fraud, led by Vice President JD Vance, has joined Oz in publicizing alleged schemes as the administration expands its push against corruption in taxpayer-funded programs.

A Massachusetts Marriage-Fraud Case

A separate case in Massachusetts shows how people can game benefit systems and immigration rules at once. Prosecutors accuse U.S. citizen Jennifer Gonzalez, 43, of arranging sham marriages for immigrants seeking legal status. Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for the Massachusetts District, said Gonzalez allegedly collected up to $40,000 per marriage and arranged as many as 20 a year over the last decade. "This conspiracy netted her $6 million during the course of the alleged scam," Foley said at a Wednesday news conference at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston.

Foley said Gonzalez bragged about investing the proceeds in businesses and property in the Dominican Republic, which she repeatedly called "my country." "Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country," Foley said.

Gonzalez allegedly told a cooperating witness that Massachusetts was "so special" because it was a sanctuary state where "illegal aliens get a lot of help as an immigrant." She allegedly said she stopped arranging sham marriages at the end of 2024 because Trump was returning to office. In 2025, she shut down the scheme entirely because immigration enforcement had become "a little harsh."

Prosecutors called Gonzalez the "ringleader." Her 31-year-old secretary, Amara Pugh; Jessica Tavares, 31; Erica Daniels, 29; and Jaylin Hill, 26, were allegedly paid to marry clients. Gonzalez allegedly entered a sham marriage herself. In most cases, participants stayed married for years, divorced, then married other clients as soon as a month later. Gonzalez, Pugh, Tavares and two other alleged conspirators were arrested Wednesday morning; Hill was already in state prison for a gun offense.

Foley also said Gonzalez applied for and received more than $124,000 in SNAP benefits from 2019 through 2026. She allegedly failed to report income from the sham-marriage business or list other household members. The Justice Department described the case as an allegation.

Why This Matters:

Taxpayers fund Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP. Every fraudulent claim comes out of their pockets, whether it's a $3.7 billion equipment scheme or a day care center billing for seniors who never showed up. The cases suggest weak verification at the front end of these programs: sign-in sheets with future-dated entries, concentrations of roughly 2,000 hospice providers in one metro area, and benefits paid for years without reported income. Enforcement raids may deter some bad actors, but they arrive after the money's gone. From a fiscal-responsibility standpoint, the harder question is whether program design, not just prosecution, keeps pace with the criminals. Every allegation here remains unproven in court.