Paul Richard Randall, Medi-Cal Fraud, California 2025

Orange County Man Pleads Guilty to $270 Million Medi-Cal Fraud Scheme

LOS ANGELES

An Orange County man has pleaded guilty to submitting nearly $270 million in fraudulent claims over an 11-month span to Medi-Cal for expensive prescription drugs containing generic ingredients that were not medically necessary and, in many instances, not provided to the purported recipients.

Paul Richard Randall, 66, of Orange, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of wire fraud committed while on release. He has been in federal custody since June 2025.

According to his plea agreement, Randall, along with Kyrollos Mekail, 37, of Moreno Valley, and Patricia Anderson, 58, of West Hills, took advantage of Medi-Cal’s suspension of its requirement that health care providers obtain prior authorization before providing certain health care services or medications as a condition of reimbursement.

The scheme involved billing Medi-Cal tens of millions of dollars per month for dispensing high-reimbursement, non-contracted, generic drugs through Monte Vista Pharmacy, a business owned by Randall.

From May 2022 to April 2023, Monte Vista 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.

“This defendant used a public health program as his personal piggy bank,” said 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.”

“Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the Department, working closely with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, is supercharging efforts to take down every fraudster and bring them to justice,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“The defendant 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,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“Schemes that bill Medicaid for costly drugs that patients never needed or received threaten the integrity of the program,” said 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).

As part of his plea agreement, Randall admitted to laundering the illicit proceeds by transferring the proceeds of the Medi-Cal fraud scheme to a third party to pay kickbacks to Anderson, to promote the fraud scheme and to conceal and disguise the transfers from detection by law enforcement.

Randall could face up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 at sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

Defendant: Paul Richard Randall

Criminal Charges: One count of wire fraud

City and State: Orange, California

Date: June 2025 (in federal custody)

Sentence: Currently in federal custody, facing up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 at sentencing

Dollar Amount: $269 million in fraudulent claims submitted to Medi-Cal

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/orange-county-man-pleads-guilty-orchestrating-fraud-scheme-submitted-nearly-270