A man from Orange County, along with his accomplices, has been caught in a massive $270 million Medi-Cal fraud operation. This move comes as authorities intensify their efforts to combat the misuse of taxpayer funds in California.

Sixty-six-year-old Paul Richard Randall from Orange admitted guilt to filing fake claims with Medi-Cal over an 11-month period. These claims were for expensive prescription drugs that either used generic ingredients unnecessarily or were never actually provided to the patients, according to a statement by the Department of Justice on Monday.

Randall confessed to one charge of wire fraud, committed while he was already released on a prior offense. He has been detained since June 2025.

The Department of Justice detailed that Randall, in collaboration with 37-year-old Kyrollos Mekail from Moreno Valley and 58-year-old Patricia Anderson from West Hills, exploited a temporary lift on the prior authorization requirement by Medi-Cal. This requirement normally mandates that healthcare providers secure approval before dispensing certain services or medications in order to be reimbursed, as outlined in the press release.

“This defendant viewed a public health program as his personal piggy bank,” remarked First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.

“This guilty plea serves as a clear message that this administration, in line with the President’s crackdown on fraud, is committed to ensuring criminals do not exploit taxpayers without consequence,” he added.

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.

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