Tag: fraud

Feds bust Chinese-Canadian fraud ring operating in 37 states targeting seniors

Multiple Chinese nationals have been indicted for their role in orchestrating an elaborate transnational fraud and money laundering scheme targeting elderly U.S. and Canadian citizens.

Sixteen people were indicted overall, living in the states of California, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas. Two are Canadian citizens; three are Canadian residents, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island in a case stemming from an ICE investigation that identified 300 victims in at least 37 states who lost a combined initial more than $5 million. Investigators also identified a bank account through which they believe approximately $16 million in additional suspected fraudulent funds were laundered.

The bust comes after the greatest number of Chinese and Canadian illegal border crossers were reported under the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.

According to the charging documents, the Chinese nationals sent pop-up messages to seniors’ computers purporting to be a well-known technology company claiming the victims’ financial accounts had been compromised, their computers had been hacked, or they were the focus of a criminal investigation. The messages instructed them to call a “live agent” who said their financial assets were at risk or could be garnished and they could help protect them. The seniors were then connected with other fraudsters who claimed to be their financial institution representatives or from government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Reserve Bank.

The fraudster then instructed the seniors to transfer their money through wire or cryptocurrency to accounts they claimed were managed by federal agencies. They also instructed them to withdraw their funds in cash and purchase gold bars and give the cash or gold bars to a purported government courier who would come to their home to transfer it to a secure government location, according to the charges.

Key indictments include Chinese nationals in New York including Nanjun Song, 27, who was illegally living in Brooklyn on an overstayed B2 visa. He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering and arrested by ICE Homeland Security Investigations Las Vegas agents. He remains in federal custody in Rhode Island.

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DOGE Has Found $14 Billion in Medicaid Fraud, Waste, and Abuse, Dr. Mehmet Oz Says

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator, said his agency and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have identified at least $14 billion in fraud, waste, and abuse.

“There’s about $14 billion we’ve identified with DOGE, of folks who are duly enrolled wrongly in multiple states for Medicaid,” Oz told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

As an example, Oz said: “You live in New Jersey, but you move to Pennsylvania, and which state gets your Medicaid? Turns out both states collect money from the federal government.”

There are other areas, he said, that constitute abuse of the federal health care system. He said some people who are eligible to get a job or seek education are receiving Medicaid. Oz echoed statements made by GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.)., who in recent days said that able-bodied individuals and illegal immigrants have received Medicaid benefits.

Oz urged that Medicaid be cleaned up so that it can provide services to individuals such as people with disabilities and others, suggesting that Republicans keep a work requirement to be eligible for the program.

“I think there’s a moral hazard if we don’t, because you’ve got people who are not working who could work, who should work, and it’s better for them and better for the country if they do,” he said, referring to Republicans’ having added work requirements to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed in the House of Representatives on May 22.

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FBI arrests two Pakistani men for operation of massive immigration fraud scheme in Texas

The FBI has arrested two men from Pakistan living in Texas who are accused of operating an immigration scheme that sold fraudulent visa applications.

Abdul Hadi Murshi and Muhammad Salman Nasir, originally from Pakistan, have been accused of submitting fraudulent applications for visas and for adjustments of status to unlawfully enter and remain in the country. Both men were arrested in Texas and face multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, visa fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The pair were also charged with unlawfully obtaining and attempting to obtain United States citizenship.

“Major arrests out of [Dallas],” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X. “Abdul Hadi Murshid and Muhammad Salman Nasir — two individuals out of Texas who allegedly oversaw and operated a criminal enterprise circumventing American immigration laws by selling fraudulent visa applications. Well done to our FBI teams and partners in the investigation.”

The indictment alleges the defendants exploited the EB-2, EB-3, and H-1B visa programs by placing classified ads in newspapers for jobs that did not exist. These ads were used to falsely satisfy Department of Labor requirements that employers must first offer positions to US citizens before sponsoring foreign workers. Once the fraudulent labor certifications were secured, the defendants allegedly submitted petitions to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) along with green card applications for the visa seekers.

To create the illusion that the positions were real, the defendants accepted payments from the visa seekers, then returned a portion as purported wages.

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Ours Is A System Of Fraud, Swindles, And Corruption

But all bubbles pop, and there are no tricks left to fund both the greed of the few and the needs of the many.

Every society / economy is a distribution mechanism that distributes:

1. Gains

2. Losses

3. Risk

4. The costs of securing the sources of gains.

As a general rule, markets / economies don’t really care who ends up with the losses, and this is why markets / economies are fundamentally pathological structures: the single-minded focus is to maximize gains and minimize costs and losses by distributing them to others by any means available.

As a general rule, societies have to manage the distribution in a slightly less pathological manner to keep the status quo from being overthrown by those forced to bear the costs and losses. As Mao famously observed, “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” and so the sociopaths sluicing the gains into their own pockets and dumping the costs and losses on the economically / politically powerless without regard for social stability find the way of the Tao is reversal as those getting the crumbs eventually have nothing left to lose.

In other words, markets / economies are embedded in a social structure, not the other way round. And the social structure has to balance the distribution fairly enough to keep the majority from concluding they have nothing left to lose by throwing their lot into overthrowing the status quo.

We can gussy this structure up with a lot of theorizing and references to Plato, Marx and Machiavelli and hundreds of other players in the longstanding drama, but these are the fundamental forces in play: do the sociopaths have enough political and financial power to channel most of the gains to themselves and dump the costs and losses on others, or is the system capable of enforcing some limits on the sociopaths?

I submit that the United States is in the firm grip of the single-minded few focused solely on maximizing their gains and distributing costs and losses to others by any means available. The social and political restraints that placed modest limits on the aggregation of power and wealth into the hands of the few have crumbled, and this structural collapse has been hidden behind flimsy billboards hyping the latest in distractions: AI, tariffs, stablecoins, Rich Mom fashions, etc.

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Sen. Joni Ernst Finds ‘Huge’ Fraud in the $60 Billion Federal Employees Spent with Gov’t Credit Cards: Charges at Casinos, Bars, Pay-Per-View UFC Fights

On Thursday’s “Alex Marlow Show,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) talked about wasteful spending on government credit cards.

Ernst said, “[T]he federal government, through GSA credit cards, has 4.6 million active credit cards and accounts…we have a little less than half that number in federal employees.”

She added that “a lot” of card usage occurs during federal holidays and on days like New Year’s Eve at “nightclubs, bars” and on “Sunday afternoons, okay, a big UFC fight or something pay-per-view.” And there are also cash withdrawals at casino ATMs.

Ernst further stated that about 500,000 cards have now been canceled.

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Cop who claimed total disability was seen ‘dancing and drinking’ at Stagecoach, ran 5Ks, and went to Disneyland: DA

A former police officer from California claimed she couldn’t perform her duties after sustaining a head injury on the job — and then she was seen dancing at a music festival.

According to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, 39-year-old Nicole Brown was a police officer with the Westminster Police Department when she was injured on the job in March 2022. The release stated that Brown sustained “a minor abrasion to her forehead while attempting to arrest and handcuff an uncooperative suspect.” She was examined at the emergency room after she complained about headaches, but was released without any medical restrictions.

Brown then allegedly called out sick for several days and claimed she’d been diagnosed with severe concussion syndrome, which resulted in her being placed on total temporary disability.

While unable to perform her duties as an officer, Brown was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits after sustaining her alleged injury while on the job — including her full salary, tax-free, paid for by “the city, county, or state agency that employs the officer,” according to the DA. After a one-year period, that amount decreases to 2/3 of her full salary but can pay out for up to 104 weeks.

According to the DA, Brown collected more than $600,000 in benefits.

However, evidence obtained by the DA’s office called Brown’s so-called “total disability” into question. While out on disability, Brown allegedly claimed that she suffered from “headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, problems processing thoughts and words, and an inability to work on the computer or do any screentime.”

But on April 23, 2023 — a full year after Brown went on disability and while still claiming to be suffering symptoms of a concussion — Brown was seen by “several people” who had knowledge of her medical status “dancing and drinking at the Stagecoach Music Festival, with more than 75,000 people in attendance with loud music and bright lights everywhere and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.”

After those people reported Brown’s activities at Stagecoach to the Westminster Police Department, an investigation into the officer’s disability claims began.

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22 More People, Entities Charged in Arizona Medicaid Fraud Scheme

An Arizona grand jury has indicted 22 individuals and entities linked to a massive Medicaid fraud scheme involving sober living homes.

The charges include money laundering, theft, conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, patient referral fraud, and forgery, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday.

These indictments are part of an ongoing investigation into a $2.7 billion fraud that exploited Arizona’s health care system, particularly targeting Native Americans seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

According to the charge document, the 20 individuals indicted are associated with a church and a mental health organization called Happy House Behavioral Health. Prosecutors allege that Happy House was paid over $60 million for services that were either never rendered or only partially completed. Some of the billing, they say, was for clients who were deceased or incarcerated.

Prosecutors also allege that sober living facilities referred clients to Happy House, which in turn received funds from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state’s Medicaid agency. Happy House then allegedly paid the referring sober homes for those client placements, an arrangement at the center of the fraudulent scheme charges.

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Brooke Rollins: SNAP Program Filled with ‘Fraud and Abuse and Corruption’

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is filled with “fraud and abuse and corruption” and needs major reform, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said during a policy event with Breitbart News on Tuesday.

Rollins offered a stunning figure, noting that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) spends $400 million per day across 16 nutrition programs.

“Again, let me repeat that $400 million of our taxpayer money is spent every day across our nutrition programs, just at USDA,” she said. “So when the president ran and spoke to the American people about rightsizing government and realigning and making sure that every taxpayer dollar is spent to its best and highest and most effective use, that I’m not sure there is a program — there are others equally equal to it — but I’m not sure that there is a program that perhaps needs more reform than the SNAP program, which is the food stamp program.”

Rollins reemphasized that USDA is spending $400 million per day, and that requires officials to look “very closely” at the program.

At best, she said, “it’s ripe with fraud and abuse and corruption.” She noted that Secret Service recently conducted stings and arrested individuals engaged in SNAP fraud. She said there was “tens of millions of dollars” that were being stolen, noting that money has been given to illegal aliens wrongly in the system as well.

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UK Contractor Extradited to U.S., Pleads Guilty in Massive USAID Fraud Scheme Tied to Pakistan Energy Program

A UK citizen who ripped off American taxpayers through a U.S.-funded foreign aid program has been sentenced to time served after a brazen kickback scheme drained nearly $100,000 in USAID funds — and he’ll now be handed over to immigration authorities.

Stephen Paul Edmund Sutton, 53, of the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C. federal court Monday to conspiring to commit theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, a felony offense.

Sutton was a Logistics Operations Manager for a contractor implementing the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Power Distribution Program (PDP) in Pakistan — a five-year effort that was supposed to help modernize Pakistan’s failing electric utilities.

Instead, Sutton and his co-conspirator, who remains under indictment, lined their pockets by setting up bogus shell companies that funneled inflated contracts for forklifts and crane services — all under the guise of helping Pakistan’s struggling power grid. Sutton personally pocketed at least $21,000 in kickbacks.

More from DOJ:

 According to court documents, PDP was a component of U.S. government assistance to the government of Pakistan to support its energy sector.

Launched in September 2010, the five-year program was designed to facilitate improvements in Pakistan’s government-owned electric power distribution companies through interventions and projects addressing governance issues, technical and non-technical losses, and low revenue collection.

The main goal of the PDP was to improve the commercial performance of the participating distribution companies through technology upgrades and improvements in processes, procedures, and practices, as well as training and capacity building.

Under the PDP contract, Sutton’s employer subcontracted through purchase orders with vendors in Pakistan for certain goods and services.

From May through November 2015, Sutton and his co-conspirator, an employee supervised by Sutton, participated in a kickback scheme by creating two companies, obtaining PDP purchase orders for forklift and crane services for the companies, and distributing the profits to themselves.

As part of the scheme, his co-conspirator arranged for low-grade local vendors to provide the services for at least half the contract rates, and Sutton ensured that the company paid the invoices despite suspicions raised by an accounts payable officer.

U.S. government sentencing documents indicate the agency was defrauded of almost $100,000 and that for his part, Sutton received at least $21,000 in kickbacks.

Sutton’s co-conspirator is also charged by indictment and his case is pending disposition.

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Republicans Sound Alarm: Illegal Aliens Faking Accidents, Injuries to Secure Large Payouts

Illegal aliens are being recruited to join sophisticated criminal networks in the United States that stage accidents and injuries to get payouts through the nation’s personal injury system, House Republicans told Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In a letter led by Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), the group of Republicans warned Bondi that personal injury fraud is a growing industry in the U.S. that requires immediate attention from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“These fraudulent schemes pose serious risks to public safety, increase consumer costs, and raise insurance premiums for the motoring public,” the Republicans wrote. “According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, insurance fraud costs the U.S. $308 billion annually, with $45 billion attributable to property and casualty insurance fraud. More importantly, these activities put innocent motorists at risk of injury or even death.”

In particular, the Republicans noted that a criminal ring operating in Louisiana, staging vehicle accidents with commercial trucks, resulted in 63 individuals — including plaintiff attorneys — getting indicted as part of the federal probe into the scheme.

The Republicans said illegal aliens are also cashing in:

It also appears that illegal immigrants are being recruited as part of these schemes, sometimes as a requirement to repay coyotes who helped them cross the border. Numerous cases highlight the intersection of illegal immigration and alleged abuse of the personal injury system, with some plaintiffs reportedly using litigation loans and workers’ compensation payments to repay debts owed to human smugglers. [Emphasis added]

For example, in February 2023, Angel Peralta Ordonez, an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, filed a workers’ compensation claim just two months after arriving in the U.S., later admitting in deposition that he used $15,000 in litigation loans and $6,000 from workers’ compensation payments to settle a $21,000 smuggling debt. Additional reports, such as those from the New York Post, allege that MS-13 gang members and Russian criminal networks orchestrate fraudulent injury claims, pressuring migrants into unnecessary surgeries to inflate lawsuit settlements. [Emphasis added]

The Republicans urged Bondi to form a task force in the DOJ dedicated to investigating and prosecuting such personal injury fraud schemes.

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