Turkish American Dr. Oz Targets Armenian Community in Los Angeles
The former TV Doctor thinks an Armenian bakery is part of a mafia-linked Medicare fraud ring.
An Armenian bakery owner in Los Angeles says business is down 30 percent after former reality TV physician Dr. Mehmet Oz, who now serves as Trump’s Medicare administrator, falsely accused his shop of being part of a Russian-Armenian gang engaging in hospice and home care fraud.
“I’m really disappointed,” bakery owner Moses Bislamyan told a local ABC News affiliate. “Recording my signs, my location, and talking about some kind of fraud going on here. We have nothing to do with it.” he said.
After traveling to Minnesota and Florida as part of his anti-Medicare fraud tour, Oz made his way to Los Angeles, where he filmed himself pointing to a sign that reads “Tigranakert” in English lettering. That’s the the name of Bislamyan’s bakery. The sign also includes Armenian lettering that reads “Tarm Lavash,” which translates to Fresh Lavash, a traditional Armenian flat bread used to wrap kebabs and deli meats.
“What we have learned is that there is roughly $3.5 Billion of fraud taking place here in Los Angeles in hospice and home care,” Oz says in a pre-produced X video while standing in front of Bislamyan’s business.
Oz seemed to think the use of Armenian lettering, which he inaccurately referred to as “Cyrillic,” was suspicious enough to lob serious allegations without a proper investigation.
“It’s run…by the Russian, Armenian mafia,” Oz claims. “The lettering and language behind me is of that dialect and it also highlights that fact that this is an organized crime mafia deal.”
If an Armenian bakery has somehow succeeded in fraudulently billing Medicare for nonexistent hospice services to the tune of billions of dollars, the federal government’s lax oversight of Medicare authorizations would be the true root of the problem. In reality, there is no indication that Bislamyan is guilty of wrongdoing.
“There is no Armenian mafia going on here. We’re just hard-working businessmen,” Bislamyan to local reporters. “I don’t understand why he’s mentioning just Armenians... especially Russian Armenians.”
Perhaps Dr. Oz was attempting to reproduce the virality of Nick Shirley’s controversial video, which highlighted what the YouTuber alleged were fraudulent Somali daycares in Minnesota. Shirley’s content, much like Oz’s, targeted a single ethnic group and had serious credibility issues of its own.
But unlike Oz, Shirley at least gave the impression that he was investigating the businesses he featured in his video. Oz, on the other hand, is supposed to be a high-level government official with the resources necessary to conduct legitimate investigations when credible fraud allegations emerge. Instead, he lazily pointed to signage he can’t read, misidentified its lettering as Cyrillic and proceeded to make unfounded criminal claims against a bakery without citing any evidence.
Oz’s stunt is pretty disastrous for the Trump administration, although it pales in comparison to the Epstein files debacle. Here’s why:
