Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche unveiled indictments on Thursday against multiple individuals in Ohio accused of stealing over $50 million in government funds.Blanche unsealed charges against 14 defendants, including state employees, during a press conference. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Director Mehmet Oz accused the suspects of defrauding taxpayers, including by corrupting publicly funded home healthcare and autism programs. Much of the alleged fraudulent activity occurred in Columbus, home to large Somalian, Nepalese, and Bhutanese populations. “Ohio is facing some of the most significant fraud schemes in the country,” Blanche said. “It has crippled our taxpayer-funded programs and robbed the American purse for too long. Under the leadership of our great president and vice president, the days of the brazen theft that we’ve seen of taxpayer dollars, abusing the generosity of the American taxpayer, is over.”
A slew of other top officials attended the briefing, with FBI Director Kash Patel unveiling a new “Top 10 most wanted fraudsters” list, and Andrew Ferguson, vice chairman of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, announcing Hawaii’s Medicaid fraud control unit was decertified due to concerns it has systemically failed to crack down on scammers.
