The Nigerian chief who made millions from Medi-Cal – Latest News
Last December, Chief Nathan Ogbatue arrived in a motorcade exterior the grand entrance of a newly constructed palace in Abatete, Nigeria. A videographer shouted praises in Igbo, calling him “half man, half god” and commending him for building the palace “free of charge” for the Abatete group.
Ogbatue is hailed on social media as a philanthropist who has constructed roads and housing, sponsors annual medical clinics, and offers food for the needy in Abatete.
He can also be, it seems, CEO of California Home Health Agency (CHHA), a profitable taxpayer-funded company that gives in-home medical care and a vary of specialty remedies.
Chief Nathan Obiorah Ogbatue is a Nigerian chief who made millions from Medi-Cal. Facebook/Idemili Media Associates
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How did Ogbatue make his money? Between 2018 and 2021, CHHA made much less than $2 million from Medicaid. Then, over the following three years, the company raked in more than $34 million — a huge increase, which coincided with a collection of high-dollar real estate transactions. Experts we spoke with mentioned that CHHA’s billing numbers raised main purple flags.
CHHA’s web site makes no point out of Nathan or Agnes Ogbatue. When we known as the quantity on the positioning, a girl picked up, however declined to reply our questions, saying it was a customer support line solely.
We drove to California Home Health Agency’s location in a strip mall in Riverside. The blinds had been shut tight as we knocked on the door. After a whereas, a girl answered, and directed us to call Nathan.
We confirmed her a photograph of Chief Nathan Ogbatue in Abatete standing in entrance of golden statues of himself and Agnes. She confirmed that Nathan Ogbatue was the person within the photograph.
Next, we drove to the Ogbatues’ six-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion, however the gates had been closed. We known as and requested to speak, however Nathan himself brushed us off, saying he didn’t have the time. In a earlier dialog over the telephone, he denied that he was the “Owelle” (roughly translating to “chief”) of Abatete and mentioned our investigation wouldn’t get wherever.
“We worked really hard, to be honest with you. If we were doing anything funny we wouldn’t talk to you,” he mentioned. “I’m talking to you because I have nothing to fear. What I’m telling you is that we worked hard.”
Chief Nathan Obiorah Ogbatue, a Nigerian chief who made millions from Medi-Cal. Facebook/Idemili Media Associates
We spoke to Ogbatue over the telephone thrice. During two of these calls, we requested how many people he employed, however he wouldn’t give us an estimate.
Nathan Ogbatue was topped chief of Abatete, a southern Nigerian farming city, in a boisterous ceremony in 2012. A YouTube video reveals his acceptance speech, during which he pledged “to place the interests of Abatete first in all my private and official transactions . . . so help me God.”
Ogbatue has apparently delivered on that promise. He reportedly paid for a palace, roads, and renovations to the city’s civic middle, which hosts a number of painted murals of the Ogbatues and sits beside two golden statues of the couple.
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Villagers are grateful for his generosity. Two years in the past, an outlet launched a compilation of beneficiaries of Ogbatue’s philanthropy. Over the previous 12 months, Ogbatue has sponsored a youngsters’s Christmas get together and distributed sacks of food to the needy.
As these tasks took form in Nigeria, we hoped to reply one remaining query: How did Chief Nathan Ogbatue make a lot money by means of the Medicaid program?
California is riddled with Medicaid fraud. As City Journal beforehand reported, the state’s largest home health program is especially susceptible to scams. One skilled estimated that up to 40 % of all spending on that program is misplaced to fraud.
As these tasks took form in Nigeria, we hoped to reply one remaining query: How did Chief Nathan Ogbatue make a lot money by means of the Medicaid program? X/@christopherrufo
No officers have publicly accused CHHA of wrongdoing. Two consultants we spoke with, nevertheless, recommended that the company’s billing patterns raise severe questions. Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government, reviewed CHHA’s Medicaid information and famous a number of potential points.
“What jumps off the page is not the amount being charged for each service—it is the extraordinary volume of services being billed,” he mentioned. “This agency went from roughly half a million dollars in annual Medi-Cal payments to $17 million in 2023, while reaching the very top of the statewide distribution for the frequency of certain nursing and home-health-aide claims.”
Mark Haskins, a fraud skilled and former investigator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was alarmed by CHHA’s billing totals, small workplace, and failure to file obligatory disclosure kinds.
“In my experience, companies with unidentifiable employees, billing for a large number of services, and failing to supply a utilization report to the state for more than six years that would easily verify much of the information in question have all the earmarks of a fraudulent shell company that fabricates stolen patient and even NPI numbers to submit fabricated billings,” he mentioned.
We despatched Ogbatue a listing of questions and assertions, together with the reported Medicaid billing totals, earlier than publication.
A lawyer from King & Spalding despatched a long response. She argued that CHHA offers professionally ordered and medically mandatory home health care through a “network of more than one hundred contracted registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, and home health aides.” She recommended that the pandemic drove demand for CHHA’s providers and claimed that the company’s income increase in 2022 “coincides with a health plan contracting for additional home health nursing services.”
Chief Nathan Obiorah Ogbatue is a Nigerian chief who made millions from Medi-Cal. X/@christopherrufo
While we had been in Riverside, we spoke to Ogbatue on the telephone exterior of his home. During that dialog, he implied that we had been racist for asking how California Home Health Agency made its money.
“All the white people that made more money than me, have you ever chased them?” he requested. “I don’t care if you’re white or orange or polka dot. A snake is a snake, whether it’s black, white, or orange.”
Ogbatue informed us to contact his lawyer, Wilfred Aka. Aka was disbarred by the federal U.S. Tax Court and the federal Board of Immigration Appeals, was suspended by the California state bar in 2019 and 2020, and confronted disciplinary costs with the state bar in 2025. He didn’t return our calls.
Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow on the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the writer of America’s Cultural Revolution. Madeleine Rowley is a researcher at City Journal. This article first appeared in City Journal.
