Hassan Badday and Robby Ayoub

Introduction

Hassan Badday, 48, of Los Angeles, and Robby Ayoub, 52, of Huntington Beach, are two California doctors charged in separate federal indictments with accepting illegal kickbacks in exchange for authorizing millions of dollars in medically unnecessary genetic testing orders. Their cases were announced on October 22, 2026 as part of a Los Angeles health care fraud takedown in which federal prosecutors charged 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, with roughly $2 billion in losses alleged, and arrested eight defendants that day.

Background Information

Each doctor is charged with a conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive health care kickbacks. According to the indictments, the two received illegal kickback payments in cash and wire transfers from a marketer representing ApolloMDx, a laboratory based in Houston. The payments were allegedly structured and paid out on a per-patient basis in exchange for the doctors’ agreement to allow the marketer access to their Medicare patients to collect DNA samples, and for the doctors’ signatures on genetic testing orders. The takedown that carried their cases was described in wire coverage as a series of predawn raids across Southern California targeting suspected fraudsters — including a cardiothoracic surgeon in a separate scheme — accused of stealing nearly $2 billion through sham substance abuse programs, unnecessary surgeries and phony hospice care.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not convicted. Badday and Ayoub face accusations in federal indictments — conspiracy and health care kickback charges that have not been tested in court; both are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and no plea is reported in the coverage.

According to the indictments, the arrangement worked as a pipeline: the marketer collected DNA samples from the doctors’ Medicare patients and gathered the doctors’ signed testing orders, then submitted both to ApolloMDx, which billed Medicare for genetic tests that are alleged to be medically unnecessary and rarely, if ever, used to manage or treat the patients’ actual medical conditions. Prosecutors allege Badday authorized genetic testing orders that resulted in ApolloMDx submitting more than $4.2 million in fraudulent claims to federal health care programs, yielding more than $2.8 million in reimbursements. Ayoub allegedly authorized testing orders that led to more than $1.3 million in billed claims, resulting in more than $900,000 in federal reimbursements.

The two were charged in separate indictments rather than a joint case, but their schemes as described by prosecutors share the same Houston laboratory marketer, the same per-patient payment structure, and the same alleged mechanism — Medicare patient DNA samples paired with doctor signatures — that converted routine patient rosters into millions of dollars in billed genetic testing.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The charges were announced amid a sweep that First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli framed as a betrayal of the medical profession: “It is especially egregious when doctors and other health care professionals, who pledged to do no harm, resort to petty greed and criminality,” he said, adding that the cases announced represent “billions of dollars in intended losses” and that “Every dollar drained out of our private and public health insurance systems is one less dollar available to those who truly need it.” Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said the takedown’s charges included what the department described as the largest sober home fraud scheme it has ever prosecuted and a scheme involving unnecessary invasive procedures detected through data analytics — the announcement umbrella under which the Badday and Ayoub indictments were unsealed.

Current Status

Badday and Ayoub remain charged but not convicted: the indictments are accusations, and both are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General are investigating the case, and Justice Department Trial Attorneys Andrew Tamayo and Kelly R. Churnet of the Fraud Division are prosecuting. No arraignment dates, pleas, or attorney statements for either doctor appear in the coverage fetched for this page.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For two practicing physicians, the kickback indictments strike at the thing a medical practice is built on: the authority to order tests in a patient’s name. Prosecutors allege that authority was sold per-patient — cash and wire transfers in exchange for signatures on genetic testing orders and access to Medicare patient lists — producing, in Badday’s case, more than $4.2 million in billed claims and, in Ayoub’s, more than $1.3 million. Both doctors now face federal conspiracy and kickback charges carrying prison exposure and, with their names attached to a billion-dollar takedown announcement, the public collapse of the referral-based sidelines their practices allegedly ran.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, “L.A. Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in 15 Defendants Charged, Including Six Medical Professionals, with $2 Billion in Losses Alleged”, October 22, 2026 — source
• WFMD (Fox News wire), “Federal authorities charge 15 in massive $1.8B Southern California medical fraud sweep”, October 22, 2026 — source
• MyNewsLA, “Doctors Charged in LA Health Care Fraud Takedown”, October 22, 2026 — source