Feds shine in California fraud bust – Latest News
To attain the alleged fraudsters, brokers needed to noticed by metallic.
That’s a high-quality metaphor for the duty of prying entrenched, pervasive fraud out of scam-riddled California.
Credit is due the Trump administration, for doing this important, painstaking work the state itself has long uncared for –– and for implementing the law: a key step in addressing California’s fraud epidemic.
In a coordinated takedown early Thursday morning, the feds arrested eight people –– in Covina, Glenale, Anaheim and Lakewood –– in reference to more than $50 million in Medicare fraud.
Those arrested included Amelou and Gladwin Gill, operators of St. Francis Palliative Care in Anaheim, who had been nabbed at their Covina home by an FBI SWAT group that hacked by metallic gates to get in.
Those arrested included Amelou and Gladwin Gill, operators of St. Francis Palliative Care in Anaheim. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post
The Gills’ end-of-life facility –– which had a affected person survival fee of more than 97% over the previous 5 years, the federal authorities mentioned –– allegedly swiped $7 million from taxpayers.
“Since 2022, there have been allegations, but for four years, what seems to be typical in California, nothing was done,” mentioned Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services who was on the scene of the Covina raid Thursday.
Dr. Oz, together with fraud czar/Vice President JD Vance and prosecutor Bill Essayli, first assistant US legal professional for the Central District of California, have executed yeoman’s work in preventing California fraud.
Their success displays nicely on their boss, President Trump, who campaigned in 2024 in half on ending waste, fraud and abuse throughout federal authorities packages similar to Medicare.
Voters ought to take discover: Campaign promise saved.
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The raids additionally comply with a California Post investigation into the hospice fraud that honeycombs Southern California; reporters discovered a web of docs who might be bilking Medicare (i.e., taxpayers) out of tens of tens of millions of {dollars}.
The investigation discovered nonexistent addresses, empty storefronts, and addresses the place a number of hospices had been presupposed to operate.
In one instance in North Hollywood, a building “for rent” was listed because the handle for 12 hospices and home health businesses.
So it was welcome information final month when Oz mentioned that “every single hospice in California is now under investigation.”
Oz additionally confirmed on Thursday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has suspended “hundreds” of hospice licenses in California. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post
Thanks to superior fraud detection instruments, he added –– together with AI –– investigators can pinpoint potential scammers.
Oz additionally confirmed on Thursday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has suspended “hundreds” of hospice licenses in California.
Good.
The plundering of taxpayers –– nearly unchecked for years –– wants to finish; these accountable ought to face penalties; state and federal officers need to put in reforms to stop more abuses; and California, long a bastion of progressive laxity, wants a tradition change.
The feds get it, and the cleanup has begun.
Voters, in the meantime, ought to maintain accountable those that presided over the fraud mess in California, beginning with presidential aspirant Gavin Newsom.
The governor and the remaining of California’s political class additionally need to recollect: The money being looted will not be “free” money or politicians’ money or “the government’s” money or bureaucrats’ money.
It is our money, taxpayers’ money, hard-earned-through-long-days money.
Congrats to the feds for slicing by the metallic.
