California investigators say a hospice fraud ring stole the identities of out-of-state residents to fraudulently bill the state's Medi-Cal program.
Attorney General Rob Bonta says the suspects bought personal information on the dark web and enrolled healthy, out-of-state people in hospice care without their knowledge.
Bonta says the fake patients had no idea what was happening.
"The so-called patients were healthy, out of state, and completely unaware that they had been enrolled in hospice care."
The scheme funneled money through more than 130 shell companies and used cryptocurrency to avoid detection. State investigators have already recovered more than 30-million dollars and blocked another 40-million in payments.
Bonta says his office has conducted nearly 300 hospice fraud investigations since 2021 and secured 51 convictions. He says California has had a moratorium on new hospice licenses since 2022.
Assembly Republican Leader Heath Flora is calling for a special session on state fraud, saying Californians deserve to know how much was lost and who was supposed to be watching.