CARETAKERS OF ELDERLY ARRESTED 2 FACILITIES' OWNERS ACCUSED OF SWINDLES.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

GLENDALE - The owners of a Glendale adult day care center who are accused of filing more than $20,000 in false claims to the state Medi-Cal program are expected to be arraigned on felony charges May 30, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Thursday.

Lockyer also charged the owners of a Hollywood convalescent hospital Thursday with embezzling more than $40,000 from a World War II Nazi concentration camp survivor, court documents say.

The two criminal cases are the first to be filed by the attorney general's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse. After taking office last year, Lockyer assigned 20 investigators and prosecutors to pursuing elder-abuse cases, said Sandra Michioku, spokeswoman for the attorney general.

Criminal complaints were filed this week against Happy Days Adult Day Health Care in Glendale and its owners, Ellen Zuzo and Gary Dubin, both of Los Angeles.

Zuzo and Dubin were arrested on suspicion of grand theft, conspiracy to defraud the Medi-Cal program and submitting false Medi-Cal claims, Michioku said. Zuzo and Dubin have been released from jail on $50,000 bail. Neither could be reached for comment.

In Hollywood, Regina Mizrahie and her daughter and son, Lily and Leon Mizrahie, were arrested on suspicion of elder abuse, embezzlement, conspiracy to commit a crime and receiving stolen property. The three owners of Orchard Gables Convalescent Hospital have been released from jail on $150,000 bail. They are all Los Angeles residents, officials said.

When reached at home, Regina Mizrahie declined to comment. ``There's nothing to say,'' she said.

According to the criminal complaint, Zuzo and Dubin allegedly submitted more than 100 false, fraudulent claims for service and defrauded the state program out of $20,000 from September 1999 through last month. The defendants are accused of ordering various registered nurses to make false entries into medical charts so that it appeared patients attended Happy Days on days they did not, the documents state.

The owners voluntarily closed Happy Days in March after state investigators began seizing files, Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the California Department of Aging, said Thursday. The department certifies adult health care facilities.

No complaints had been filed against the facility, which was licensed to serve 100 people, Hidalgo said. Happy Days provided medical and social services, recreation and meals for about 50 people daily, he said. The Department of Aging has referred those people to another facility, Hidalgo said.

The nine-count felony complaint against the Mizrahies and Orchard Gables alleges the owners stole $40,000 from patient Betty Cahn and filed hundreds of false claims for patient services, totaling $80,000.

Court documents state the Mizrahies diverted Cahn's monthly reparations and pension payments from the Republic of Germany, as well as her Social Security checks, into the nursing home's general account and a bank account for Leon Mizrahie's auto body shop.

Records seized by state investigators indicated Cahn should have had $39,750 in her patient trust account, court documents state. At the time of her death in May 1997, Orchard Gables reported $217 in her account, the complaint says.

The nursing home owners are accused of using Cahn's money to buy a big-screen television and medical equipment for the facility and hygiene products for other residents, the complaint says.