Recent events have sparked outrage among the Armenian community, after a video of Dr. Mehmet Oz, the current Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has circulated, targeting local Armenian businesses in Van Nuys, California.
The January 30, 2026, video featured businesses that Dr. Oz claimed were committing fraud, embezzlement, and other crimes.
Without any factual basis or evidence to support these claims, Dr. Oz pointed fingers at hospices claiming that millions of dollars have been stolen. If anyone knows anything about pointing blame, they know that if they are to do such a thing, they must come with facts and evidence to support them, especially when libel and slander could arise as a result.
Armenians are outraged for several reasons: one main reason is that Dr. Oz is of Turkish des-cent. When blatant attacks such as these arise, Armenians will see this as nothing but a racist act. In referencing these businesses owners, Dr. Oz calls them the ‘Russian-Armenian Mafia.’
This is a serious allegation that should not be taken lightly, but Dr. Oz has explained it without any evidence.
The ultimate issue with the video was not simply blanket statements, but rather standing in front of local, hard-working Armenian businesses, including bakeries, and making inferences about the hospice business that just because they are Armenian, they must be involved with “the mafia,” therefore, they are committing fraud. A logical fallacy in its truest form.
Dr. Oz addressed several pieces of information that were presented as facts, saying things like “these guys stole 16 million dollars” and that someone ended up serving time for it. Or saying that they actively recruit doctors to write fraudulent notes. However, throughout this video, not once does Dr. Oz mention any names, or confirmation from a reliable source that these are truly being investigated by federal agencies, or any sort of information that can be relied upon.
Are these doctors being investigated for malpractice? If someone did in fact serve time, who was it? Are they connected to these local businesses?
Because of this, Armenians are seeing Dr. Oz’s video as a calculated racial attack. Whether or not there is any truth to those statements, standing in front of bakeries claiming fraud is happening in one specific area with a lack of credibility – it hardly screams truth.
Throughout history, Armenians have endured all kinds of propaganda, harassment, and hate online from their neighboring enemies, especially after the most recent Artsakh war. So, one can only imagine how it must feel when someone, whose ancestors committed genocide and who actively deny it today, point fingers at them for fraud.
While many are seeing this as a racial issue, others are seeing this as a distraction from the new healthcare policies enacted by the Trump administration and Congress regarding Medicare. The belief is that the current administration and the person who is in charge of this sector, is pointing blame at the failures of the system and hardworking groups of people, instead of directing their attention to the laws and policies that will impact lives.
As a result of these allegations, several politicians have spoken out, including U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, and the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who has launched an investigation into these allegations.
Senator Schiff has demanded an independent review and Gov. Newsom announced that his office would be filing a formal civil rights complaint after seeing the effect these statements have made upon these businesses.
The effects have led these businesses, which are not limited to hospices, to see as much as a 30% decrease in profits. Among these are the very same bakery featured in the piece, several credit repair offices, and more.
These Armenians, who have worked their entire lives, many of whom have emigrated from Armenia to seek refuge in the United States and give their children better opportunities, have suffered the consequences of a person in authority.
That authority being of the same descent that has been the cost of their displacement over a century ago sparks deep outrage and pain.
What Dr. Oz has done is not a simple statement that was put out to provide information to people or to warn them of a situation.
It was an act that reinforces negative stereotypes about a certain group of people. An act that has done irreversible damage and will take a miracle to undo. An act that will now cost hardworking people their businesses and their livelihoods.