An Orange County man, along with his accomplice, has been taken into custody for allegedly orchestrating a $270 million medical fraud scheme, as California authorities intensify their efforts to tackle taxpayer exploitation.
Paul Richard Randall, aged 66 and from Orange, admitted to submitting fraudulent invoices to Medi-Cal over an 11-month span, billing for expensive prescription medications that contained generic components that patients neither needed nor received, as announced by the Justice Department on Monday.
Randall has been in custody since June 2025 and pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud while on release.
According to the Justice Department, Randall, along with Kairos Mekail, 37, from Moreno Valley, and Patricia Anderson, 58, from West Hills, took advantage of Medi-Cal’s temporary suspension of prior authorization requirements for healthcare services to bill for specific medications before actually providing them, which was a precondition for reimbursement.
“This defendant treated public health programs like his personal bank account,” remarked First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Esseri. “This guilty plea aligns with the President’s efforts to combat fraud and serves as a warning that we won’t ignore those who steal from taxpayers.”
Assistant Attorney General A. Theisen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division emphasized that Randall was a “repeat offender who defrauded Medi-Cal, a program aimed at helping those in need, for nearly $270 million in costly and unnecessary medications.”
Randall and his co-conspirators, operating through Monte Vista Pharmacy, exploited the suspension of prior authorizations by charging Medi-Cal tens of millions monthly for dispensing highly reimbursed, uncontracted generic drugs.
From May 2022 to April 2023, the pharmacy charged Medi-Cal over $269 million and received more than $178 million for 19 expensive, uncontracted drugs that were not medically necessary, had not been provided, or both, according to the release.
To hide their activities, the three men allegedly laundered the illegal proceeds through third parties and provided kickbacks to Anderson.
Scott J. Lampert, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Investigations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, noted that, “A scheme that bill Mediciad for costly medications that patients did not need or receive undermines the program’s integrity.”
Mekail pleaded guilty to two counts of healthcare fraud in August 2024 and is currently awaiting sentencing. Anderson faces two counts of healthcare fraud.
Randall’s sentencing is scheduled for August 3, where he could face as much as 30 years in federal prison.
