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An Orange County resident and his associates have been apprehended in connection with a staggering $270 million Medi-Cal fraud operation. This development marks a significant step in California’s ongoing efforts to combat the misuse of taxpayer funds.
Paul Richard Randall, 66, from Orange, has admitted his involvement in filing fraudulent claims with Medi-Cal over an 11-month period. These claims were for expensive prescription drugs that contained generic ingredients, which recipients either did not require or never actually received, according to a Monday announcement from the Department of Justice.
Randall has entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud, committed while he was out on release. He has been detained since June 2025.
The Department of Justice revealed that Randall, along with Kyrollos Mekail, 37, from Moreno Valley, and Patricia Anderson, 58, from West Hills, exploited a temporary policy change in Medi-Cal. This change had suspended the requirement for healthcare providers to obtain prior authorization before delivering certain services or medications, which is typically necessary for reimbursement, as detailed in a press release.
“This defendant treated a public health program as his personal piggy bank,” stated First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
“This guilty plea should send a message that this administration — consistent with the President’s war on fraud — will not turn a blind eye while criminals fleece taxpayers.”
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said Randall was a “repeat fraudster who caused Medi-Cal, a program designed to help those in need, to be billed nearly $270 million for expensive and medically unnecessary medications.”
“He and his co-schemers stole over $178 million through false and fraudulent claims for these medications, lining their own pockets with public funds. The Criminal Division will aggressively prosecute those who defraud Medicaid and exploit taxpayer-funded benefit programs,” Duva said.
The DOJ said that Randall along with his co-schemers, through a business called Monte Vista Pharmacies, exploited Medi-Cal’s prior authorization suspension by billing Medi-Cal tens of millions of dollars per month for dispensing high-reimbursement, non-contracted, generic drugs through Monte Vista Pharmacy.
From May 2022 to April 2023, the pharmacy billed Medi-Cal more than $269 million and was paid more than $178 million for 19 expensive, non-contracted drugs containing low-cost, generic ingredients that were not medically necessary, not provided, or both, the release added.
The department said the three laundered the money they got through the illicit drugs through a third party to pay kickbacks to Anderson, to hide their scheme from detection.
“Schemes that bill Medicaid for costly drugs that patients never needed or received threaten the integrity of the program,” Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Scott J. Lampert of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) said.
Mekail pleaded guilty in August 2024 to two counts of health care fraud and awaits sentencing. Anderson is charged with two counts of health care fraud.
Randall’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 3. He could face a maximum of 30 years in federal lockup.