Tag: welfare

12 Foreign-Born Operators From Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan Charged in $10 Million San Diego ‘Ghost Daycare’ Scam — Kids Only Showed Up When the Inspector Did

American taxpayers just got another look at how the childcare subsidy machine actually works in Gavin Newsom’s California.

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that 12 naturalized citizens and lawful permanent residents, originally from Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, have been charged in a more than $10 million home-daycare fraud scheme in San Diego.

Prosecutors say the defendants obtained California licenses to run home childcare, signed up with Child Development Associates and the YMCA to collect federal and county subsidies meant for low-income working families, then knowingly submitted false attendance records claiming they were watching children on days and at times when they were not.

They signed those forms under penalty of perjury. The money still showed up as direct deposits.

More than 250 federal, state, and local officers arrested all 12 defendants in a coordinated Thursday-morning raid and executed search warrants at the San Diego-area homes they claimed were daycare facilities.

U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon put it bluntly: “Today is a bad day for home daycare fraud. These fraudsters may have criminally gamed the system before. But today, the game is over.”

IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman said investigators “uncovered patterns of deceit that revealed twelve ghost daycare operations billing for children who were never present,” and that proceeds went to luxury homes, overseas wire transfers, and large cash withdrawals.

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Vance: 870K suspected COVID-loan fraudsters barred from future federal assistance

Vice President JD Vance announced Monday that the federal government will suspend roughly 870,000 individuals suspected of defrauding pandemic-era small business programs, permanently barring them from receiving future government-backed loans.

Speaking at an FBI field office in Kansas City, Missouri, Vance described the administrative crackdown as a blunt message of accountability, stating that borrowers who stole from taxpayers would no longer be eligible to borrow money or participate in programs administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

The sweeping suspensions stem from a multi-agency operation that flagged an estimated $39 billion in suspected fraudulent activity across 45 states and U.S. territories.

The announcement was made alongside key administration officials, including Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. It accompanied a broader Justice Department campaign targeting fraud in emergency aid initiatives like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) scheme.

Officials revealed that recent enforcement drives have resulted in criminal charges against nearly 80 individuals for schemes involving fake businesses, falsified payrolls, and identity theft, alongside dozens of guilty pleas and sentences connected to hundreds of millions in intended losses.

Authorities emphasized that barring these individuals from federal assistance — including disaster loans and SBA contracting programs — is a crucial first step toward curbing systemic abuse.

The enforcement surge highlights ongoing efforts to claw back billions of dollars distributed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic under highly relaxed safeguard protocols.

Oversight watchdogs, including the SBA’s Inspector General, have previously estimated that total fraudulent disbursements across pandemic emergency relief channels exceed $200 billion.

Justice Department officials attributed the continued wave of prosecutions years after the programs closed to expanded staffing, increased federal resources and improved cross-agency data sharing, assuring the public that federal investigators will continue pursuing fraudulent networks both domestically and abroad.

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Children of the Somali Dictator Responsible for the Deaths of 200,000 People Quietly Living Off American Taxpayers in Ohio Suburbs Alongside Victims of His Regime

The children of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose brutal regime has been linked to the deaths of as many as 200,000 people, are reportedly living quiet suburban lives in Columbus, Ohio.

According to an investigation by the New York Post, Barre’s son, Ayanle Mohamed Siad, and daughter, Deka Mohamed Siad, settled in the United States after their father was overthrown in 1991.

Their presence has reportedly caused deep pain within Columbus’ Somali community, which includes refugees and families who suffered under Barre’s 21-year military dictatorship.

“Siad Barre and his men committed so many war crimes, so I was shocked to see his son in the mosque enjoying his freedom,” Ali-Guban Mohamed, whose family members were reportedly executed by Barre’s forces, told the Post.

Barre seized power in a 1969 coup and ruled Somalia through repression, political persecution, and military violence. His regime’s campaign against the Isaaq people in northern Somalia included mass killings, destroyed cities, poisoned wells, and widespread displacement. Estimates of those killed range as high as 200,000.

Ayanle, 61, has been described by historian Mohamed Haji Ingiriis as his father’s “right-hand man.” Ingiriis told the Post that Ayanle exercised significant power during the final years of the dictatorship and at one point acted as the de facto ruler while his father was incapacitated.

“He was so powerful that he was able to appoint and dismiss regime authorities on behalf of his father,” Ingiriis said.

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Georgian National Charged for Conspiracy to Launder Proceeds of $1.3 Billion Health Care Fraud Scheme

A Georgian national has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston for allegedly conspiring to launder the proceeds of a $1.3 billion health care fraud scheme while he was illegally in the United States.

Erekle Gugava, 33, a Georgian national, was indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy. Gugava fled the United States in July 2025, after the alleged conduct.

According to court documents, Gugava was a money launderer for the foreign-based organization that spearheaded the largest health care fraud case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice, dubbed Operation Gold Rush. The organization, based in Russia and elsewhere, orchestrated a multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme to target, exploit and steal from Medicare and other health insurers.

As alleged in the charging documents, Gugava purportedly owned ND Medical Solutions, LLC (ND Medical), a durable medical equipment company located in Pennsylvania, between February 2025 and July 2025. During the limited five-month span of Gugava’s purported ownership, ND Medical submitted at least $1.3 billion in fraudulent DME claims to Medicare, private health insurance companies that contracted to provide Medicare supplemental insurance policies, private employer-sponsored plans and union health plans. These insurers paid ND Medical approximately $6.5 million.

As part of the scheme, Gugava allegedly facilitated the deposit and transfer of fraud proceeds. Among other things, he allegedly opened several bank accounts in the name of ND Medical – for which he was the sole signatory – and deposited checks from Medicare Supplemental Insurers and other health insurers into the ND Medical bank accounts. The funds were then ultimately transferred to various overseas bank accounts for the benefit of the organization.

As alleged in charging documents, the fraudulent claims relied, in part, on the stolen identities of citizens from Massachusetts, across New England, and throughout the United States to justify the fraudulent billings. Many of these individuals, including elderly and disabled Americans, reported their concerns to Medicare and its contractors after receiving explanation of benefit forms that reflected them purportedly receiving DME that they did not in fact receive, that was purportedly prescribed by doctors whom they had never visited and purportedly delivered from ND Medical—a DME company with which they were unfamiliar.

As further alleged, the organization exploited the United States’ financial system by depositing insurance reimbursement checks from the fraud. The health care fraud proceeds were particularly susceptible to laundering because they originated from legitimate sources. Medicare and established private insurance carriers, giving the funds the initial appearance of legitimacy.

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FBI’s fifth Most Wanted Fraudster captured after alleged SNAP scam suspect arrested in India

The FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters initiative notched its fifth arrest in just three months after authorities in India arrested Manjit Singh Bedi Friday, and the bureau is working to return the alleged SNAP benefits fraud suspect to the United States, Fox News Digital has learned.

The FBI worked with Indian authorities to secure Bedi’s arrest and is actively working to return him to the U.S. to face charges, according to the bureau. 

Bedi’s arrest is the fifth through the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters initiative, which targets fugitives accused of major financial crimes.

Launched in June, the initiative has led to the arrests of five fugitives whom the FBI says are collectively accused of more than $2 billion in alleged fraud after spending nearly 4,000 combined days on the run.

FBI officials say the latest arrest underscores the bureau’s effort to pursue alleged fraudsters who fled overseas in an attempt to evade prosecution.

“Five Most Wanted Fraudsters captured in just three months is a historic success for this initiative,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital.

“The days of taking advantage of American taxpayers without consequence are over.”

Federal investigators allege Bedi defrauded the U.S. government out of at least $600,000 through a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud scheme between March 2024 and June 2025, while operating an Asian grocery store in Tacoma, Washington.

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Trump Admin Drafts Policy to Let Married Stay-at-Home Parents Collect Child-Care Aid Instead of Paying Strangers to Raise Their Kids

The Trump administration is drafting a Health and Human Services policy that would, for the first time, let a married parent who stays home with the children collect federal child-care money that Washington has spent thirty years routing almost exclusively to day-care centers.

The New York Times, citing people familiar with the talks and a draft document, reports the change is a priority for Vice President JD Vance and would tap the Child Care and Development Fund, the 1990s program built to help low-income parents pay for care so they could work or go to school.

Typical aid runs about $9,000 per child a year.

Under the draft, a married couple in certain income brackets could use that assistance for “parent-based childcare,” meaning one spouse stays home while the other works at least 35 hours a week.

“The change would create the only federal subsidy to pay parents to stay home and raise their children, one of the most significant efforts to date by the Trump administration to harness federal funds to promote a traditional view of families,” the NYT reports.

No new act of Congress is required for this change.

The Times reported, as if it were a negative, “The policy change would effectively create a government incentive for parents to stay home with their children, an idea embraced as part of a broader conservative effort to advance policies that promote more mothers staying at home.”

A federal program that will pay a stranger to raise a child and will not pay a mother or father to do it is not neutral.

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Muslim Convert Minnesota AG Keith Ellison Forced to Return $12,500 From Somali Fraudsters After Secret Tape Caught Him Promising to “Fight These People” and Unfreeze Their Welfare Cash

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to statewide office in Minnesota and a convert from Catholicism, has quietly returned at least $12,500 in campaign cash from Somali figures tied to the massive Feeding Our Future welfare fraud after a secret recording surfaced of him huddling with the same crowd to fend off state investigators.

According to the Center of the American Experiment, the five refunded contributions included donations from Gandi Yusuf Mohamed and Liban Alishire, both of whom became defendants in the Feeding Our Future case.

As The Gateway Pundit reported in December, the 54-minute recording, obtained by the Center of the American Experiment and later entered as a trial exhibit, captured Ellison schmoozing with Somali-American operators who would later be charged or convicted in the Feeding Our Future scheme that looted more than $250 million in federal child-nutrition money meant for hungry kids.

The meeting participants complained that state regulators were acting in a “racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic manner” by asking questions about phantom meal sites.

“The only way we can protect what we have is by inserting ourselves into the political arena, putting our votes where it needs to be, but most importantly, putting our dollars in the right place,” Feeding Our Future consultant Abshir Omar said.

“But if you are secure in your donor base, and if you are secure in your power base, you can act the way you want to act,” Omar continued.

“Money is freedom,” Ellison replied with a laugh.

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Trump DOJ Puts Sanctuary States on Notice: ALL State Agencies Receiving Federal Food Stamp and Social Security Assistance Funds Must Report Known Illegal Aliens to DHS Under Welfare Reform Law Passed by Congress in 1996

The Department of Justice just ripped up a 28-year Clinton-era legal dodge that let sanctuary states hide illegal aliens from federal immigration authorities while collecting billions in welfare money meant for American families.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a formal opinion holding that when a state takes Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) funds, the entire state government, not just the welfare office, must report to the Department of Homeland Security any person the state knows is not lawfully present in the United States.

That is not a new law. That is the 1996 welfare-reform statute Congress actually wrote. The Clinton Justice Department simply pretended it said something else.

“Congress wrote this requirement plainly,” said Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, who leads OLC. “When a state chooses to participate in TANF, it accepts the obligation to report illegal aliens in the United States. Tax dollars intended to help vulnerable Americans should not perversely encourage illegal entry into the United States, but rather should reinforce our laws and our borders.”

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock, the author of the opinion, was even blunter: the new guidance “does not impose new obligations on states.” It “simply restores the original meaning of the statute Congress enacted.” States that take the money “must abide by federal law, and failure to comply may lead to serious consequences, including loss of program funding.”

All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. territories take TANF and SSI. Federal TANF block grants alone exceed $16.4 billion a year.

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Huge Red Flags Emerge as ‘Respiratory Therapist’ Gets Caught Billing California Medicaid for OVER $40 MILLION and Goes on INSANE Spending Spree with His Husband

Alarm bells are going off as a California man who supposedly works as a “respiratory therapist” has gotten obscenely rich in what appears to be one of the worst cases of Medicaid fraud yet.

As City Journal’s Chris Rufo reported on Wednesday, Curtis Kurkova has a company called HeroCare that has at least $40.5 million in California Medicaid payments since 2020. Roughly $34.4 million of that was paid out between 2023 and 2024.

Per Rufo, HeroCare earned the majority of its Medicaid revenue between 2020 and 2024 from a handful of basic plastic commodities.

Flush with these tens of millions of dollars, Kurkova has spent lavishly. His largest purchase was a $28 million Hidden Hills mansion near where the Kardashians live.

Kurkova and his husband also spent millions on sports cars, private jets, luxury resorts, and three additional homes. They have even partied in some of the most exclusive areas on the planet.

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SNAP Junk Food Bans in Two States on Hold Due to Court Rulings

The battle over SNAP benefits might be being waged from state to state, but federal courts are part of the action, too.

Two states that had planned restrictions on the foods that can be purchased by those using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards have put the moves on hold after a federal court ruled in favor of SNAP recipients in a case covering five other states, Newsweek reported Monday.

Six states still have restrictions in place.

SNAP, formerly known as “food stamps,” is a federally funded program administered by the individual states. It is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Some states restrict its use from purchasing junk food, such as sodas, candy, and some juices and energy drinks. Others have plans to do so.

The states that already have restrictions that are unaffected by the ruling, according to the grocery tracking website Greenchoice, are Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.

South Carolina and North Dakota were only days away from implementing similar bans beginning Sept. 1 when Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, struck down restrictions that had already been in place in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

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