Tag: welfare

Fraud-Linked Democrat Somali Daycare Owner Flips Seat in Minnesota Legislature

A Democrat candidate in Minnesota who defeated a Republican incumbent in the midterm election Tuesday owns a Somali daycare center that is linked to a huge fraud settlement.

The Democratic Farm Labor Party (DFL) (the official name of the Democrat Party in the state) candidate Abdi Daisane is the CEO of Blooming Kids Child Care Center in St. Cloud, Fox News reported Friday, noting he won Minnesota’s House District 14A seat.

Over several years, the childcare center has received over $7 million from the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, the report continued:

His childcare business also received $598,251.62 from the federally-funded Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) since 2020. A nonprofit called Partners in Nutrition, which recently had to pay an $18.5 million civil settlement for fraud, was the center’s sponsor for CACFP funds.

A press release from the settlement says Partners in Nutrition “knowingly defrauded the State of Minnesota out of millions of dollars in federal child nutrition funds during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, in violation of the Minnesota False Claims Act.”

More than 20 locations in Minneapolis were raided in April as federal officials moved to crack down on the alleged fraud linked to Somali-run businesses after citizen journalist Nick Shirley exposed suspected fraud in the state’s Somali community, according to Breitbart News.

The Fox article said it visited the Blooming Kids Child Care Center on Thursday and found the building and area to be quiet and a nearby parking lot mostly empty.

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DOJ Uncovers $29M More In Minnesota Benefits Fraud, Calls State ‘Epicenter For Fraud In America’

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it identified roughly $29.1 million in government benefits fraud in Minnesota over a one-month period.

Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 30, the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and the District of Minnesota charged, convicted, or sentenced 13 individuals for proven or alleged schemes that caused nearly $83 million in intended losses to the federal government.

The DOJ said in an Oct. 30 statement that it uncovered $29.1 million in fraud in newly charged cases, which is part of the total $83 million.

The targeted benefits programs include Minnesota’s Medicaid program, the Federal Child Nutrition Program, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Some are accused of engaging in bribery as part of carrying out their schemes.

In one case, Shaakir Mohamud Ibrahim, 54, of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, is facing wire fraud and money laundering charges for being part of a scheme to defraud the Federal Child Nutrition Program through the nonprofit Feeding Our Future.

Ibrahim and his co-conspirators are alleged to have falsely claimed to be serving thousands of meals to children every day for four months. The department alleged he used this fake meal distribution to collect more than $1.1 million in reimbursements through the nonprofit.

In another case, the DOJ said it charged Feisal Mohamed Elmi, 46, of New Brighton, Minnesota, with 11 counts related to health care fraud in an $8.2 million scheme that targeted the state’s Medicaid program.

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UK Announces Tax Hikes on Savings and Property Income as Welfare Spending Rises

The left-wing Labour Party government will raise fresh taxes on savings and property income as spending on welfare and foreign subsidies will continue to grow, recently installed Chancellor John Healey told the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Unveiling his autumn budget, Chancellor Healey said that he would be increasing tax rates on income made from savings and property by two per cent starting in April to 24 per cent, 44 per cent, and 49 per cent depending on income level.

“I am increasing the rates of tax on income from property and savings by a further two percentage points from April 2027, with no change to tax on income from dividends and tax on income from employment,” he said. The Chancellor also said that he would be increasing tax on bank profits over £100 million ($133m) from three to six per cent.

Yet, Healey did not take the opportunity to slash welfare spending, which is now predicted to reach £431.3 billion ($574bn) per year by 2031, The Telegraph reported.

This comes as estimates forecast that direct welfare payments to migrants will hit £21 billion ($28.5bn) a year by 2029, and Reform UK has predicted the cumulative lifetime cost of the so-called Boriswave migrants who arrived between 2020 and 2024 will be £622.5 billion ($828bn) for British taxpayers.

In addition to ploughing more money into Britain’s ballooning welfare state — and thus into the pockets of many recently arrived foreigners — Chancellor Healey also announced a further £10 billion ($13.3bn) in British support for Ukraine in economic and military aid

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Massachusetts Senate Brags About Blocking ICE and Providing Financial Aid to Illegal Aliens

The state Senate of Massachusetts is openly boasting about how it ensured financial aid and in-state tuition for illegal aliens, along with anti-ICE legislation and programs to import more foreign healthcare workers.

Naturally, the state Senate’s Facebook account did not refer to any individuals as illegal aliens, but it did emphasize that it was including immigrants of any status in its special privileges for Massachusetts community college students. This means that the state Senate, which Democrats control, is explicitly affirming that it violates federal laws not only by protecting illegal aliens from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but also by granting them taxpayer-funded privileges that are supposed to be exclusive to in-state citizen residents.

The Facebook post on Wednesday said, “In Massachusetts, we know that our immigrant community makes us stronger.  On National Immigrants Day, we celebrate their contributions, ingenuity, and bravery. We also reaffirm our commitment to equity and ensuring our state is a safe and welcoming place to live for everyone.  #NationalImmigrantsDay #OpportunityForAll.”

If you look at the screenshot below that Libs of TikTok put on X, you can see that the Massachusetts state Senate claimed ICE is not allowed to go to so-called sensitive places, which would include churches and schools. Of course, Massachusetts Democrats do not have the power to ban ICE. In fact, federal law explicitly criminalizes interference with federal immigration officers’ operations (see 18 U.S. Code § 118 and 8 U.S. Code § 1324). So, technically speaking, the state Senate’s majority has just confirmed that its members are all complicit in illegal activities.

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What Is The Hope Florida Scandal and What Does It Say About Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: A History Of Treachery

When it comes to corruption in the State of Florida, there is no criminal more guilty than Governor Ron DeSantis, and his wife Casey DeSantis, who stole $10 Million from the poorest of Floridians.

The Hope Florida scandal that has enveloped the DeSantis’ throughout the last year has reached a new fevered pitch as CBS News Miami has leaked the entire grand jury presentment against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his wife, First Lady Casey DeSantis.

The leaks reveal damning evidence that the grand jury found evidence of severe, and even potentially criminal conduct by the First Family as it pertains to the Centene settlement, in which their appointed officials illegally steered $10 Million into Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida charity.

Now the DeSantis’ are trying to cover up the information by suing those attempting to expose this information before the midterm elections.

We will examine the depth of the DeSantis’ treachery as it pertains to their theft of $10 Million later within the article, but first, let’s look at DeSantis’ own statements on the matter.

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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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Oz Says Minnesota Fraudsters Bribed Moms $1,500 to Fake Autism Diagnoses

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said fraudsters in Minnesota bribed mothers roughly $1,500 per child to falsely claim their children were autistic, saddling the children with diagnoses they did not have.

Oz made the remarks at an appearance alongside President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, crediting the administration’s anti-fraud task force and independent reporting for exposing the scheme.

The CMS administrator framed the abuse as a theft of more than money.

“Fraud doesn’t just steal our money. Fraud steals people’s lives and it also steals our trust as a nation, and that is devastating to any country,” Oz said.

He said the scheme carried two victims. A child wrongly labeled autistic carries that record going forward, Oz said, while mothers of children who actually need the services are left unable to afford care.

Oz said that after reviewing the reporting, CMS examined providers operating in Minnesota’s 14 programs flagged as high-risk for fraud and found roughly a third could not be validated.

“One in three shouldn’t have been doing that job,” Oz said. The agency is pursuing dozens of cases, including criminal investigations, and has deferred about half a billion dollars in payments to the state, he added.

The administrator credited independent journalist Nick Shirley, whose video of Minneapolis daycare and autism centers that appeared vacant drew federal attention. Shirley told CNN he uncovered around $100 million in fraud in a single day.

Minnesota’s autism program grew from about $3 million in 2018 to nearly $400 million in recent years, according to figures Oz has cited publicly. Prosecutor Joe Thompson has said the state’s 14 high-risk programs cost $18 billion since 2018 and that more than half of that amount may be fraudulent.

Trump appointed Vance to lead a Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which held its first meeting at the White House earlier this year and drew in Cabinet secretaries along with Justice Department and Treasury officials. Oz in December gave Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) a 60-day ultimatum to restore the program’s integrity or lose funding.

Walz has called the federal effort a “campaign of retribution,” accusing the administration of “weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota.”

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New York made $7.6 million in improper Medicaid payments to incarcerated people, audit reveals

A federal audit found that New York made about $7.6 million in Medicaid managed care payments on behalf of people who were incarcerated in state prisons.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General uncovered the payments and revealed that the money went to 1,375 Medicaid enrollees who were incarcerated between January 2021 and December 2024.

The new report specified that the money was paid to managed care organizations, not directly to incarcerated people. The federal share was $6.1 million.

The Inspector General is recommending New York return that money to the federal government.

The audit found that New York did not always remove people from Medicaid managed care after they entered prison.

“We determined that the State agency did not always disenroll individuals from Medicaid managed care after receiving notification that an enrollee was incarcerated,” read the report.

In one example, an individual remained enrolled in managed care for 23 months while incarcerated and monthly payments were made on the person’s behalf.

Auditors said New York has systems designed to identify Medicaid recipients who entered prison, but those systems did not consistently match incarceration and Medicaid records.

The state told investigators that system limitations and overrides during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to some of the payments.

Auditors also revealed that discrepancies in personal information, such as names and dates of birth, could prevent the state from matching records and making an incarcerated person ineligible for payments in the system. 

The Inspector General noted that its review focused on managed care payments and did not determine whether the individuals received inpatient medical treatment.

New York officials told auditors that the state’s Office of Medicaid Inspector General was reviewing the payments and would eventually recover any outstanding overpayments. 

The audit concluded that New York needed to improve its process for identifying incarcerated Medicaid recipients and halting managed care payments that should no longer continue.

The state told investigators that it planned to improve its process for cross-referencing New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and Medicaid records.

“The State agency clarified that it would continue its systematic data-matching process to match DOCCS records with Medicaid enrollment data, but it is exploring development of an enhanced report to identify mismatches using lower-probability matching criteria and identifying individuals with minor demographic discrepancies through manual review,” read the report.

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A $120 Can of Spam Busts Open Seattle’s Food Stamp Fraud

Look in the mirror: You’re looking at an attractive, smart, hardworking taxpayer. 

And here’s where hundreds of millions of your food stamp tax dollars are going: straight into the hands of addicts, the pockets of pimps, and the funds of charlatans. 

It wasn’t bad enough that California hospice owners were driving Ferraris bought with stolen tax money, and that FireAID donations were given to nonprofits that had nothing to do with actual, you know, fire aid. Now we discover that food stamp fraud is taking place in the open on the streets of America, and nobody’s doing anything about it, apparently.

Independent reporter Nick Shirley, with a group of other indy reporters, revealed the open-air federal food stamp fraud taking place on the streets of Seattle. 

Shirley, San Francisco-based street reporter Darren Stallcup, Seattle’s Jonathan Choe, and other intrepid indy reporters followed the money. 

Choe tells Shirley that EBT cards litter homeless encampments, where they receive so many of them that they begin to throw them away. Many of those “homeless” drug zombies use their food stamp cards to buy drugs. 

Choe and Shirley found EBT cards and sought to follow the lucrative scam from beginning to end. Shirley lays out how simple this is in a new video displaying how one abandoned EBT card can buy drugs, sex, and a $120 can of Spam.

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