We are going to spend a lot of discussion time in the coming posts to review the massive amount of criminal fraud that has infected government programs for many, many years. The outstanding investigations recently done, and still being done, by independent journalist, Nick Shirley, has started a cascading identification of the numerous fraud instances at all levels of government across the country.
It is unbelievable how many billions of dollars have been wasted and are currently being wasted and siphoned off by all types of criminal activities. And while it is amazing how much taxpayer wealth has been wasted and lost, possibly even more amazing is the reality that through the decades the political class and the government entities they overlook were unable or unwilling to stop the fraud.
1)Let’s start today’s fraud discussion back in Ohio, a place we have discussed a few times before, fraud-wise:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently issued food stamp/SNAP violations to 19 alleged fraud retailers in Ohio.
These alleged fraudsters were accused of SNAP fraud including swapping SNAP benefits for cash alcohol, tobacco, and other illegal items.
For example, a Columbus, Ohio retailer supposedly swapped over $800 in SNAP benefits for $300 in cash and also traded SNAP benefits for a glass bong and bottles of wine.
Another Columbus retailer accepted SNAP benefits for beer which is forbidden under SNAP guidelines.
A Cleveland retailer swapped over $17,000 in SNAP benefits for cash via undercover Federal agents.
In the big picture, these numbers are tiny. But if this type of fraud is happening daily at tens of thousands of retail outlets across the county the fraud could easily get up into the billions of dollars being ripped off from taxpayers.
2)Let’s stay in Ohio for the latest, much more robust fraud:
The FBI recently announced the busting of a criminal enterprise in Ohio which scammed the Medicaid program out of $30 million.
Those stolen dollars were used to buy high cars including a Bentley, a Maserati, a McLean, and SIX Mercedes.
Four alleged criminals behind the scheme operated bogus behavioral health companies that billed Medicaid for therapy and mental health services that supposedly was done with kids and young adults at camps, church programs and recreational events.
However, all of the services they submitted for reimbursement never happened.
When Federal agents moved in they seized a total of 14 cars worth about $800,000.
Three bank accounts with $469,000 were also seized.
In conjunction with this announcement in Ohio, the Feds announced that they had identified another fraud scheme that had siphoned off $57 million off various government programs that operated, not out of Ohio, but out of Ghana.
It was also announced that the FBI had developed a “Top Ten Most Wanted Fraudsters" list to focus on the big fish ripping off the American taxpayer.
An Ohio audit earlier this year estimated that the potential fraud just in Ohio could range anywhere from $800 million to $44 billion.
The good news is that some pretty savvy and vicious fraudsters have been caught in Ohio. The bad news is that the ripping off of government programs now appears to be international.
3)But apparently Ghana is not the only foreign entity ripping off the American taxpayer:
According to the Daily Wire, a refugee from Nepal living in Ohio has been actively advertising and flaunting his new found wealth in America.
He created a vanity video that featured himself and showed him giving his dad a new Cadillac Escalade for his birthday along with a Mercedes he bought for his mom, what a great son.
Another social post showed him drinking champagne in a private jet with the caption:“Welcome Aboard AIR ROSHAN. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a kid born in Nepal would one day reach the skies like this.”
Wow, what a great American success story except for one small problem: he got rich ripping off Medicaid and the American taxpayer.
Apparently he operated as COO the Centerlight Home Care LLC in Cleveland, which has no website but which schemed Ohio’s Medicaid for nearly $17 million.
His brother operated another Medicaid funded company that stole $10 million.
Other folks in the state of Ohio with the same surname beyond his brother billed Medicaid for $350 million.
The investigations into these bogus operations indicate that a lot of the Medicaid money these folks steal does not stay in the country, being sent back to these folks’native countries. Disgusting.
4)The Department of Health and Human Services has announced plans to launch a new artificial intelligence driven plan to review annual audits of states’ Medicaid and Medicare efforts. If the audits show incompetence relative to tracking and minimizing fraud of taxpayer funds the Federal government would withhold billions of dollars of funds from those states.
Any state government, college, or other organizations that received at least a million dollars from the Federal government would be audited annually with AI tools. Since about $2 TRILLION of taxpayer money is sent to states via Medicaid and Medicare, the stakes are very high when it comes to curtailing fraud and prosecuting the criminals stealing those funds.
Current government estimates predict that as much as $100 to $200 billion are stolen from these two programs annually. And all of these audits are not only necessary but legal under the 1984 Single Audit Act.
Previous state audits have uncovered fraud schemes. For example, a Minnesota 2024 audit found that the state had failed miserably for a number of years to conduct in-depth reviews of, as we know, numerous and extensive fraud schemes in the state. Thus, the governor, Tom Walz, and others in the state bureaucracy knew for years there was fraud and did little, if anything, to fix the stealing of taxpayer wealth.
Ohio, Minnesota,Ghana, and Nepal, an international feasting on taxpayer money that was never controlled by the American political class.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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