In a single fraud case, federal agents seized nine luxury vehicles, nine properties, and more than $1 million in sports memorabilia from one man who stole $270 million from California’s Medicaid program in just 11 months. He was billing for prescription drugs that were never prescribed and never delivered to patients who needed them. He was caught. Most are not.I know because I have spent decades working alongside federal agencies and more than 9,000 state and local government programs, testified before Congress, and advised on some of the largest fraud investigations in the country. What I have seen would shock most Americans.Over $1 trillion is stolen from government programs every year, which works out to more than $115 million every hour. Roughly 70% flows directly to transnational criminal networks in Russia, China, Nigeria, and Romania, organizations that use those funds for child trafficking, drug operations, and direct attacks on our national security. These are not small-time criminals. They are sophisticated, fast-moving operations that know our payment systems better than many of the people running them.
TODD BLANCHE ANNOUNCES $50 MILLION FRAUD BUST IN OHIO
The current enforcement crackdown is long overdue, and it is producing results. Blocking reimbursements to suspected fraudulent providers and demanding that states show measurable prosecution results sends the right signal. Prosecuting aggressively works, and more of it is needed. But prosecution cannot keep pace with a trillion-dollar criminal enterprise that moves faster than any investigation can open.
