Tag: fraud

Jim Geraghty finds Ilhan Omar age discrepancy in her autobiography

National Review reporter Jim Geraghty has uncovered an age discrepancy based on what Ilhan Omar has said about her age and what she’s written in her book.

Here’s what he said:

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar writes in her memoir, “I was eight years old when civil war broke out in Somalia. One day everything was okay, and the next, there were bullets piercing not only buildings but also people.” While Somalia has suffered several civil wars, the chapter is entitled, “War: 1989-1991, Mogadishu, Somalia.” Mogadishu experienced severe riots in July 1989, including a mass execution that became known as the “Jazeera beach massacre.”

If, in her own words in her own autobiography, Omar was eight when this occurred in 1989, then she was born in 1981, and was 19 years old in the year 2000, when her father purportedly obtained his citizenship, not 1982 as she currently claims.

Red Steeze makes the obvious but important observation:

And there is not a single journalist anywhere interested in looking into these discrepancies. Her entire biography has just been “Trust me.” and that’s been good enough for all of them.

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Old Ilhan Omar Tweet Resurfaces That Doesn’t Help Her Case At All

As she faces allegations of immigration fraud, a central aspect of the defense that Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Mogadishu) is that her name is indeed Ilhan Omar. Or to be precise, Ilhan Abdullahi Omar. The search warrant that was issued for the raid on her home identifies her as “Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.”

This matters, because the man she married whom many say is her brother is named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Omar herself has dismissed the controversy as baseless (as well as racist and “Islamophobic” and all the usual tosh and twaddle), and when asked about her name, answered: “Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, you know it. It’s Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.”

Now, however, a 2013 Ilhan Omar tweet has surfaced that only strengthens the case that she is indeed named Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, lending credence to the charge that when she married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, she was marrying her brother in order to help him get into the United States. And that, of course, is immigration fraud.

The case against Omar, of course, doesn’t depend on this alone. There is a great deal more evidence that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is indeed her brother. But this is another piece of the puzzle, and an extremely revealing one. Fox News reported Saturday that in a deleted 2013 social media post, the winsome Somalia-First solon dropped a massive clue regarding her name.

“Happy Father’s Day,” the future darling of the far-left and pro-Sharia forces in the U.S. wrote, “to my aabo [father] Nur Said, I am forever grateful to Allah for giving me the best father…” She deleted this tweet on Sept. 19, 2019, eight months after she entered Congress. Now, why would an innocuous Father’s Day greeting be something that an older Omar, now embarked upon a political career on the national stage, would want to delete?

Well, it seems that she now contends that her father’s name is Nur Omar Mohamed. In line with Somali naming practices, this would support the claim that her name is Omar also. However, in the deleted tweet, she calls her father “Nur Said.”

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Michigan Retiree Without Internet Connection Credited with $4,500 in ActBlue Donations

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff said in a Wednesday report that federal records had tied an 88-year-old retiree in Milan, Michigan, to nearly $4,500 in new ActBlue donations over six weeks, among them four logged on a day she had no internet access.

LeDuff reported that 562 transactions were attributed to Elizabeth Waffle during that stretch. Four of them, totaling $22, posted the very day he first visited her rural trailer, where the power, water, and internet are all off.

During that first visit, LeDuff and Waffle tried to make a donation together and could not get online.

“Last time we were here, remember, we tried to make a donation,” LeDuff said, recounting the exchange in a follow-up interview.

Among the new transactions was $51 logged for Abdul El-Sayed, whom LeDuff called “the king of the Michigan micro-donors.” El-Sayed won the Democrat Senate primary in August by under a percentage point and faces Republican Mike Rogers in November, in a contest analysts rate as a possible tipping point for Senate control.

The retiree lost her house to a fire two years ago and has lived in the trailer since. She said the figures made no sense to her. Federal filings reviewed in July had attributed 14,696 donations to her over five years — roughly eight a day — a tally LeDuff put at more than $130,000.

When the reporter returned last week with printouts, the widow turned on him, asking whether he was building a hit piece on the platform.

“I think it’s a bunch of hogwash,” Waffle said.

She suggested Republicans cheat too, and agreed when LeDuff asked if her view was to “fight fire with fire.” Then she softened.

“I believe in honesty,” she said. “I do care if somebody is fudging and putting stuff in.”

Asked whether she wanted him to keep looking, Waffle agreed. “Yeah, if they are,” she said.

Not every independent review matches the Michigan Enjoyer’s totals. The Center Square reported that FEC records show $100,295 in contributions tied to Waffle’s name across three cycles, and noted that ActBlue’s Tandem Fundraising tool can split a single donation form across many campaigns, generating multiple logged transactions from one gift.

The renewed attention follows months of federal scrutiny of the Democrat fundraising platform. ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment rights before the House Administration Committee this year. President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department in April 2025 to examine whether online fundraising platforms had processed illegal contributions.

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A Withdrawn Immigration Application, Corrected Tax Returns, And ‘Military Officer’ Father: Ilhan Omar Evidence Piles Up

The New York Post has published additional reporting (assembled from previous reporting – see below) on the disputed allegations surrounding Omar’s marriage to Ahmed Elmi, highlighting a British marriage certificate alongside previously reported financial records and witness claims.

Omar denies wrongdoing, and the material presented does not establish that Elmi is her brother or that their marriage was fraudulent. The Post’s cited evidence and allegations include:

  • Family records and names: A 1997 British marriage certificate obtained by the Post identifies the father of Leila Nur Said, whom the paper describes as believed to be Omar’s sister, as Nur Said Elmi. Sources told the paper this was another name used by Omar’s father. The Post also cites the federal filing identifying Omar as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” His profession is listed as “military officer.”
  • A shared address: Omar and Elmi listed the same Columbia Heights, Minnesota, address on their 2009 marriage application. Ahmed Hirsi, the father of Omar’s children, also used that address for a business license, according to the Post.
  • Overlapping relationships and tax filings: Omar had her third child with Hirsi in 2012 while legally married to Elmi. The Post also cites joint tax returns Omar filed with Hirsi for 2014 and 2015, before her divorce from Elmi was finalized in 2017. Those returns were subsequently corrected.
  • A withdrawn immigration application: Citing the Washington Post, the paper reports that Elmi withdrew a marriage-based green-card application in 2019 after immigration authorities requested additional evidence concerning the marriage.
  • A disputed witness account: The Post revisits a Somali blogger’s 2020 claim to the Daily Mail that Omar had introduced Elmi as her brother and said he needed immigration “papers.” This remains a witness allegation, rather than documentary proof of kinship or fraud.

Omar’s late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, served as a colonel in Somalia’s army under dictator Siad Barre. A 2020 Sahan Journal obituary, citing a fellow former officer, reported that he commanded a regiment during the 1977–78 Somali–Ethiopian War and remained in the military until the regime collapsed in 1991. The New York Post has since quoted historian Mohamed Haji Ingiriis accusing him of helping sustain Barre’s dictatorship and misrepresenting his background when seeking refugee status in the United States. Barre’s forces committed well-documented atrocities against Isaaq civilians, including bombardments of Hargeisa and attacks on fleeing civilians. However, those atrocities and Nur’s military rank do not establish his individual culpability: the reporting cited does not demonstrate that he personally ordered or participated in a specific atrocity.

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“THE NEW YORK TIMES GOT CAUGHT!” – Trump Nukes the New York Times After Admitting to Getting Duped by Fake Pollster With Completely Fabricated Numbers

President Trump on Thursday lit up the New York Times, slamming the outlet for using bogus numbers from a “totally fake” pollster while speaking to reporters, then later warning that his defamation lawsuit is growing stronger by the day.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, a fake pollster called Wedgewood, which admitted to being an “entirely fabricated polling firm,” duped mainstream media outlets with bogus polls across multiple swing states as part of a social experiment. It was “far too easy,” Wedgewood said.

“Despite having no history, formal credentials, or real data behind the vast majority of our releases, Wedgewood Polling was added to major polling aggregators, including The New York Times, FiftyPlusOne, and VoteHub, and repeatedly treated as a legitimate data source,” the fake polling outfit, self-described as an “experimental project,” said in a statement.

“Our fabricated numbers were given instant credibility across national media platforms – including being cited on air and in reporting by outlets such as MS NOW. The ease with which unverified figures were absorbed into mainstream political narratives highlights a systemic breakdown in media vetting and data aggregation.”

The Times admitted to removing 15 polls from the firm after it “acknowledged that almost all of its work was fake.”

President Trump responded on Thursday when a reporter asked him why Democrats are doing “so well” in the polls.

“I don’t know if they’re close. I mean, I just saw that the New York Times used the poll numbers of a totally fake, you know, a group that said there were fake numbers against me,” Trump said.

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Trump DOJ Nails Los Angeles Medical Fraud Ring Accused of Stealing Nearly $2 Billion — Sham Rehab Lured Homeless and Addicts, Unnecessary Surgeries Injured Patients, Phony Hospice Billed for Non-Dying Seniors

Federal agents and prosecutors under the Trump administration struck another massive blow against California’s runaway healthcare fraud industry Thursday, charging 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, in schemes that collectively submitted over $1.8 billion in fraudulent claims to Medicare, private insurers, and other programs.

The Justice Department’s announcement, led by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, targeted what prosecutors described as the largest substance abuse treatment fraud scheme the department has ever prosecuted, along with unnecessary invasive artery procedures that injured patients and multiple hospice fraud operations where beneficiaries were not terminally ill, New York Post reported.

Eight defendants were arrested, with others charged and expected in court.

The cases include a father-son operation and Texas recruiters accused of trafficking vulnerable people, including the homeless and those in recovery programs, to Southern California for sham treatment, according to the DOJ.

Nathan Young, 39, and his father David Young, 71, both of Los Angeles, along with Honey Phipps, 42, and Cody Phipps, 36, of Greenville, Texas, face charges in a years-long scheme that billed private insurers more than $1.6 billion.

Prosecutors allege they controlled dozens of purported treatment facilities and used “body brokers” to lure addicts and unhoused individuals with free flights, apartments, cash, drugs, and other inducements.

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81 People Wrote A Federal Judge Asking For Leniency For Brant Frost, Who Pleaded Guilty To Running A $140 Million Ponzi Scheme

More than 80 people, including family, friends, and even investors who lost money in the scheme, are asking a federal judge for mercy on Newnan businessman Edwin Brant Frost IV who is set to be sentenced for a Ponzi scheme that the SEC says defrauded about 300 investors of at least $140 million. Their names are listed below in the exhibit index from Frost’s own sentencing memorandum.

Frost, 69, pleaded guilty on May 12 to one count of wire fraud, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. The SEC says First Liberty Building & Loan, the firm he owned, operated as a Ponzi scheme since at least 2021, paying existing investors with new investors’ money. The SEC also says Frost used investor funds for more than $2.4 million in credit card payments, more than $335,000 to a rare coin dealer and $230,000 on family vacations. Prosecutors recommend 14 years in prison. His lawyers ask for five, in a sentencing memorandum filed October 19 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Case No. 3:26-cr-00008-LMM. Sentencing is set for October 26, according to local reports.

When First Liberty Building & Loan sold itself to investors, it billed its leaders as “authentic followers of Christ” with a penchant for charitable giving to religious causes, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In advertising in conservative media across Georgia and beyond the state, First Liberty promoted itself with the slogan “We say yes when the big banks say no.”

Frost’s own lawyers concede the core of his misconduct in their memorandum regarding sentence. They state that “Brant made material misrepresentations to investors and omitted certain material facts.” According to their memorandum, in the final years of the investment program, returns to investors were paid largely from newly invested funds and not from borrowers’ repayments of loans. The sentencing guidelines stipulated in his plea agreement put the loss between $65 million and $150 million and count substantial financial hardship to 25 or more victims.

Frost’s lawyers write that he is neither the swindler nor the con artist that many imagine him to be. In describing Brant, the letter writers are unanimous in describing him as a gentle, kind, and loving soul, they say. Moreover, they say, the investment program that Brant oversaw was not a sham or a con.

These letters were written by Frost’s family members and friends, business associates, and ministers and other Christian leaders from several different churches. They include a letter from Paul C. Broun, M.D., who wrote that he has known Frost since the 1980s. Other writers include Chad Connelly of Faith Wins; Carroll Conley, retired executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine; Pete Mullins, who signs as Pastor Emeritus of Coweta Community Church; Tim Tidwell, who signs as pastor of Oakside Baptist Church in LaGrange; and David Theiss, who signs as mayor. Writing to a judge before sentencing is lawful and routine, and the names are part of the public court record.

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Ex-MLB Player and Wife Charged in $60K Youth Baseball Fraud

Ex-Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays player Richard Butler and his wife have been charged in connection with an alleged youth baseball training fraud scheme in Canada.

Between April 1 and Oct. 31 of last year, approximately $60,000 in registration fees for the 2025-2026 Ontario Devil Rays training program was allegedly deposited into a bank account associated with the program, police said in a news release Tuesday.

But funds were later transferred to other accounts associated with the accused couple — Michelle Butler, 52, and former big leaguer Richard Butler, 53, both of Frankford, Ontario.

The registration fees were allegedly not used for the program and the services as agreed on were not provided, police said.

CBC News notes families who paid the registration received an email on Oct. 19, 2025, saying the business had been dissolved due to financial hardship and claiming bankruptcy, police said.

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Hochul Weighs Ending $500 Million Medicaid Adult Day Care Program After Fraud Raids

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed the state Department of Health to consider ending the state’s Medicaid social adult day care benefit.

The directive came on the same day that state and federal investigators carried out a crackdown on providers suspected of fraud, and on the same day that Hochul announced 16 arrests in a separate auto insurance fraud investigation.

Hochul, a Democrat, stated at an Oct. 20 press conference that she had told the department to look at “all options to eliminate continued fraud, waste and abuse.” Those options include phasing out the benefit and moving participants to other services for older New Yorkers. The department’s recommendations are due by Dec. 31.

Social adult day care is a non-medical benefit offered through New York’s Medicaid managed long-term care program.

It provides daytime supervision, meals, social activities, and personal care in a community setting. More than 400 programs serve about 45,000 Medicaid members at an estimated cost of more than $500 million a year, according to the governor’s office. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approves the benefit and helps fund it.

The announcement followed what the governor’s office called a months-long investigation targeting more than 100 providers. The state Department of Health, the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, and the state attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit worked with the FBI and the federal Health and Human Services inspector general.

FBI agents and state officials raided programs across New York City on Oct. 20. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz called the operation the largest enforcement action of its kind.

Hochul said she had gone to Washington to meet with Oz to discuss working together against Medicaid fraud, and that the investigation is targeting providers suspected of money laundering, kickbacks, and improper billing.

“We will find you, we will prosecute you, and we will hold you accountable,” Hochul said.

At the same press conference, Hochul announced that a joint investigation by the State Police and the Department of Financial Services had led to 16 arrests in auto insurance fraud cases.

The cases involved nearly $500,000 in attempted fraudulent claims in New York City and Suffolk, Onondaga, Monroe, and Erie counties. Hochul said New Yorkers pay about $4,000 a year for auto insurance, almost $1,500 more than the national average, and that she expects the arrests and insurance reforms in this year’s state budget to start lowering rates.

Reviewing Adult Day Care Claims

Regarding the crackdown on adult day care fraud, Hochul ordered the department and the state Medicaid inspector general to require health plans to review social adult day care claims before paying them and to pursue payment suspensions. A moratorium on new providers that the department imposed in July remains in effect until January 2027 and may be extended.

State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said the department will advise Hochul on whether further reforms can deliver accountability or whether participants would do better under other services.

“Medicaid is a lifeline for millions of New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a statement. “Protecting that lifeline means defending access to care and defending the integrity of the programs that provide it.”

The program has drawn scrutiny before. A February audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that managed care plans paid $2.4 billion for adult day care services from January 2019 through October 2024. Payments rose more than 141 percent from 2021 to 2023.

Auditors identified $285 million in questionable payments to centers for dates after at least one plan had dropped them from its network. That included more than $28.6 million to centers terminated for cause, such as fraud.

In one case, a center that one plan cut for fraud, waste, and abuse in 2021 stayed in the networks of 18 other plans and was paid more than $12.9 million afterward.

Auditors also found that a Flushing center with a legal capacity of 323 billed for 530 people on a single day in September 2022.

In its response to the audit, the Health Department said the comptroller’s sampling method could overstate how widespread the problems were. The comptroller’s office called that statement misleading.

Earlier this year, two people in Brooklyn pleaded guilty to a $68 million adult day care fraud scheme, according to the governor’s office.

Asked whether ending the benefit would require federal approval and what services the participants would move to, the state Health Department referred The Epoch Times to the governor’s announcement.

Hochul faces Republican Bruce Blakeman in the Nov. 3 governor’s race.

Blakeman’s campaign and CMS did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times before publication.

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Vance fraud task force uncovers $42M in food stamp thefts — including lewd rapper who literally set cash on fire

A Trump administration fraud task force has uncovered nearly $42 million in food stamp funds meant for needy families that were instead stolen to support criminal activities as well as the lavish lifestyle of a rapper with multiple arrests — including for repeatedly exposing himself to pee off his apartment balcony.

Vice President JD Vance and members of the Departments of Justice and Agriculture held a press conference in Cincinnati Wednesday highlighting the cases involving more than 40 defendants operating schemes that bilked the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and related programs.

“Two-hundred twenty thousand Americans could’ve eaten for the entire month of October if it were not for this $42 million in fraud,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “We’ve indicted men and women in 13 different districts just in the past seven weeks, and that effort will continue for as long as it takes.”

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