California Gov. Newsom files civil rights complaint against Dr. Oz

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has filed a civil rights complaint against Dr. Mehmet Oz for allegedly discriminating against Armenian Americans in Los Angeles.

In a recent social media video, Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services who was a former TV talk show host, said Los Angeles County had “become an epicenter for health care fraud in America.” Oz highlighted Armenian businesses in Los Angeles’ Van Nuys neighborhood in the short video posted Jan. 27.

The office of Newsom, a Democrat, sent President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services its Jan. 29 letter saying Oz “spewed baseless and racially charged ‌allegations targeting the Armenian community in Los Angeles.”

The letter cited comments made in the video by Oz, a Turkish American who served in Turkey’s military. Oz said ‌Armenian businesses, including a popular bakery, had criminal ties.

“You notice the lettering ‌and language behind me is of that dialect,” Oz said as he stood in front of a strip mall. “It also highlights the fact that this is an organized crime mafia deal.”

Behind Oz, a bakery’s sign read “Lavash,” or Armenian flatbread. Oz said it was “Russian, Armenian writing,” misidentifying Armenian with Cyrillic script. The bakery owner has told local news ​outlets he lost significant business since Oz’s video.

“Such racially charged and false public statements ‌by anyone involved in administering these critical federal ⁠healthcare programs seriously risks chilling participation in those programs by individuals targeted by the statement,” David Sapp, legal affairs secretary for Newsom, wrote to HHS’ Centralized Case Management Operations.

State officials sought an ‌investigation into potential violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act Title VI, which protects people − regardless of race, color or national origin − from being excluded from federal benefits. Newsom’s press office earlier said it was taking the allegations seriously given “historic sensitivities” between Turkey and Armenia. 

CMS ‌didn’t respond to a request for comment. Asked about the complaint, HHS referred to Oz’s Jan. 28 X post, saying “CMS and law enforcement will keep doing the actual work: going after fraudsters, period.”

Oz’s video resembled others made by the Trump administration and conservative media figures alleging childcare fraud in Minnesota, which prompted federal immigration enforcement surges ‌in the state, particularly against Somali Americans.

In ​a Jan. ‌27 X post, Newsom’s office said the governor banned new hospices beginning in 2022 and revoked more than 280 licenses. A 2020 Los Angeles Times investigation found a multi-billion dollar hospice fraud industry concentrated in Los Angeles County, with fraudulent providers targeting older Americans to bill Medicare for services and equipment they don’t ‌use. Several hospices had addresses listed in Van Nuys, the LA Times reported.

Oz responded that Newsom knew about “rampant fraud for years” but hadn’t taken it on.

In Los Angeles County, home to the largest Armenian American community in the country, Oz’s allegations have drawn swift ​pushback for days.

“The rhetoric (Dr. Oz) is using puts entire ethnic communities at risk,” California Assemblyman John Harabedian, a Pasadena Democrat who is the only Armenian currently in the state Legislature, said in an X post. “It’s unacceptable whether it targets Armenians or anyone else.”

The Armenian National Committee of America, an advocacy group, on X said it supported Newsom’s recent complaint to investigate what ⁠it called “Dr. Oz’s racist scapegoating.”

Many Armenian families settled in California over a century ago after fleeing from ​the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century. They established Armenian communities in Hollywood and ⁠Glendale, in the Los Angeles area, as well as in Fresno, in California’s agricultural Central Valley.