Free Republic

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s point man for Medicare and Medicaid, says the billions of entitlement fraud being uncovered in Democrat states may be intentionally driven by politics rather than incompetence. “I do think it's a feature for some of these states,” Oz told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview Thursday night in which he detailed why the administration led by Vice President JD Vance temporarily pulled $1.3 billion in Medicaid funding from California and uncovered foreign fraudsters stealing taxpayer welfare monies. “Republicans always suspected there was fraud of this magnitude. Democrats feel embarrassed that it's gotten this...

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Fourteen people were arrested and millions of dollars in stolen items were recovered from a retail theft scheme after undercover detectives infiltrated the operation, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced in a news conference Wednesday. Last week, the sheriff’s office served several search warrants, including one at a home in Lutz, which was identified as the base of the multi-state operation. The home’s garage was packed floor-to-ceiling with stolen items, which were grouped together and arranged like a makeshift store. Chronister said “customers” would request certain items, and the group behind the scheme would take them...

Key FactsNew York lawmakers are planning the tax, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the state budget negotiations who noted the proposal would be levied at 1% of the buying price and be paid by buyers. The legislators are also considering expanding the tax to $1 million or more cash purchases in the state that would incorporate the suburbs and upstate New York, Bloomberg added. The tax in New York City alone could generate up to $160 million, according to the unnamed sources Bloomberg cited. A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., told Bloomberg she “announced a general agreement...

A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois has convicted an Illinois woman of unemployment insurance fraud for participating in a scheme that submitted nearly 700 fraudulent claims and caused more than $11 million in fraudulent COVID-19 relief benefits to be dispersed. Hiam Hmaidan, 54, of Orland Park, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and five counts of mail fraud, the Justice Department announced. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2 and faces up to 20 years in prison. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Hmaidan operated the fraud...

The Minnesota House fraud prevention and oversight committee released its final report following a two-year investigation into the state’s fraud crisis, concluding this week that Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) administration allowed fraud to persist by protecting Somali fraudsters from state regulators out of concerns for cultural sensitivity, even accusing rank-and-file investigators of racially profiling suspected scammers. According to the committee’s 84-page report on “Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Minnesota,” adopted Wednesday, when government employees flagged suspicious billing patterns to their supervisors, officials in the Walz administration ignored, demoted, and retaliated against the whistleblowers, at times accusing them of being “xenophobic”...

The lieutenant governor of the state is ramping up her Democratic Senate primary campaign as her state battles Trump’s brutal assault.Minneapolis—In 2013, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan was the 34-year-old director of the state chapter of the Children’s Defense Fund. That year, she and the nonprofit’s partners met to discuss strategies for the upcoming legislative session. One question was whether to prioritize funding for the state’s early-learning scholarships, which usually paid for half-day preschool programs, or for its Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which provides financial assistance for families for use in daycare programs. Flanagan, who is now running in...

What is it with Minnesota? Something in the air? Something in the water of those 10,000 lakes? Or is it the (let's say this softly) Third World people from low-trust cultures that they have been so freely importing? Whatever it is, Minnesota seems to be Fraud Central Station, and now we see another Minneapolis resident has been busted and is facing charges. This one is alleged to have engaged in a million-dollar Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) fraud rip-off. Authorities in Minnesota have filed criminal charges against a man accused of a food stamp fraud scheme that defrauded taxpayers out of...

🚨 HOLY SMOKES. ICE has just announced a jaw-dropping fraud bust, saying 10,000 FOREIGN students are involved in the federal government's Optional Practical Training There are EMPTY BUILDINGS where HUNDREDS of students should be "working" as part of their ability to be in America — run by foreign-linked groups that send money out of the country! Locked doors, hundreds of students sharing the SAME ADDRESS, and "employers" sharing the same unleased addresses There is a widespread "phantom employee" fraud going on. This is insane. Many of the so-called "employers" have major red flags, such as facing lawsuits, no employment records,...

A former influential scientist who did work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is back in the grasp of U.S. law enforcement, facing financial fraud charges -- after more than a decade out of federal authorities’ reach, according to officials.

As fraud concerns ramp up across the country, particularly involving Medicaid, North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek told Fox News Digital the problem is very real in his state, especially when it comes to autism therapy, an area that has been highly scrutinized in Minnesota. Boliek is sounding the alarm on potential waste, fraud and abuse within the state’s Medicaid program, specifically noting in an interview with Fox News Digital a 47,000% explosion in autism therapy billings he has flagged since taking office last year. "Those are vital services to folks and individuals that need that therapy," Boliek said. "But...

One of the state’s leading hospice care providers told Texas legislators that Medicare fraud is rampant across the Lone Star State, with rogue operators billing Medicare for millions in Taxpayer dollars. Testimony revealed that patients are being enrolled into hospice without their knowledge, and at least one provider has as many as 15 hospices operating in a single building, with the same owner. Hospice Brazos Valley President and CEO Lisa McNair recently testified before the Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services and said that the number of registered hospices in Texas has nearly doubled in the last six...

A Minnesota “violence interruption” charity has collapsed after its leaders allegedly used $6.5 million worth of charitable funds to bankroll lavish lifestyles and a private liquor store. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Friday a civil lawsuit against nonprofit We Push for Peace and its former directors, Trahern Pollard and Jaclyn McGuigan. The organization, which held lucrative contracts for community outreach and violence prevention, was driven into the ground by “rampant abuse” and blatant self-dealing, prosecutors allege. According to the complaint, Pollard personally pocketed more than $6 million of the diverted charitable funds. Instead of helping the community, the...

The primary purpose of government is to protect the liberty and property of the citizens. We have seen, for some time and in almost every major American city, how municipal governments from Boston to Los Angeles have utterly failed in this primary role. In Los Angeles in particular, the despicable phenomenon of "flash mobs," organized (presumably) online, strikes with the speed of summer lightning and loot convenience stores, threatening the owners and employees, and stealing everything but the shelving and light fixtures - leaving chaos in their wake.On X, a prominent Californian, Justine Bateman, took to her X account to...

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It's a list no one wants to be on, and it's growing in a North Texas city. Authorities believe more than 80 people since February have had their mail, which included checks, stolen from a post office in Plano. The vast majority of the thefts have happened at one postal location, and both victims and authorities are concerned that the crime could be an inside job involving postal employees. The U.S. Post Office on W. Parker Road is a place Jim Frankenfield no longer feels comfortable even approaching. "I stopped using it, don't even go near it," he said. Patty...

LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — Fay Beydoun, a businesswoman and longtime donor to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, has been charged with 16 felonies after allegedly misusing $20 million of the state budget, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Wednesday. For years, Beydoun was a fixture in Democratic politics, donating tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats across the state and more than $20,000 to Whitmer’s campaigns. She even hosted a fundraiser for the governor at her home, raising $13,500. [snip] The AG alleges that Beydoun forged an invoice from a law firm and used it for grant administration through the MEDC, presented...

(This is the third part of “Medicaid Millions,” a Daily Wire series exposing billions of dollars in dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own family.) COLUMBUS, Ohio — After the federal government approved a waiver allowing Ohio to expand Medicaid by paying housekeepers to spend time at elderly people’s houses to help with tasks like “homemaking” and “chore services,” taxpayers across the country footed a shocking $2.5 billion worth of bills between 2018 and 2024, according to a trove of Medicaid data released for the first time by the Trump administration. The demand...

A Milwaukee woman is facing multiple felony charges after prosecutors accused her of carrying out Medicaid fraud, PPP loan fraud and money laundering schemes tied to her home health care business. What we know: The Wisconsin Department of Justice charged 44-year-old Debbie Long with five felonies, including fraud and money laundering. ederal prosecutors said Long owned Pinnacle Home Health Care, LLC, a company that provided personal care services to Medicaid members, including mobility assistance, meal preparation and bathing services. From March 2017 through August 2022, prosecutors allege Long billed Wisconsin Medicaid for exaggerated or fabricated services, including inflated billing, fraudulent...

Shane Kidwell@shanerkidwell·5hWashington just became the first state in U.S. history to terminate a public employee pension plan.The plan belongs to retired police officers and firefighters. LEOFF Plan 1 was 160% funded as of June 2024 per the state's own actuarial valuation. It had not required a single contribution in 25 years. By 2029 it was projected to reach 200% funded with a $4.3 billion surplus.The legislature terminated the plan, swept $3.9 billion, and is using $880 million of it to refill a rainy day fund it already drained to cover a deficit it created.Days ago, retired first responders including former...

Last week, the FBI raided 22 shady day-care businesses in Minneapolis, Minn., as the federal government expanded its investigation of social-services fraud there. On Monday, Vice President JD Vance added Columbus, Ohio, to his fraud task force’s agenda in the wake of a new report alleging a billion-dollar Medicaid scam. Both investigations were spurred by the dogged work of citizen and independent journalists like Nick Shirley in Minneapolis and Luke Rosiak in Columbus, who knocked on doors and interviewed dozens of supposed service providers to uncover the truth about fraudsters who may have bilked the federal government of billions. And...