I sometimes think the media, which you might assume would want titillating headlines, downplays stories like this so people won’t bother reading it! Of course the headline isn’t going to say “illegal from Ghana” admits guilt! Hereis the Worcester Telegramheadline and story,
Worcester store employee admits to identity theft
WORCESTER – A Worcester man who worked at a city store whose owner was jailed for $3.6 million in food stamp fraud admitted Tuesday to stealing people’s identities. Yaw Okyere, 36, a citizen of Ghana who overstayed a student visa in 2009, pleaded guiltyto one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of possessing five or more identification documents.
Mr. Okyere was arrested last year after authorities said they found evidence of identity theft and dozens of boxes of pricey merchandise in his apartment. He had nearly 200 state driver’s licenses in files on his computer, authorities said, and apparently used other people’s identities to order goods through the mail.
Why is this store still open? Owner found guilty in 2016 of $3.6 million in food stamp fraud, the largest bust in Massachusetts’ history. She was sentenced to one year in the slammer. https://www.telegram.com/news/20160711/worcester-woman-behind-36m-food-stamp-fraud-gets-year-in-jail
Authorities allege in court documents that Mr. Okyere had intermediaries bring the ill-gotten goods to his day job at J&W Aseda Plaza, the same Worcester store where $3.6 million in food stamp fraud was perpetrated several years ago. Mr. Okyere is described in court documents as a relative of the store owner, Vida Causey, who was sentenced to a year in jail. He told authorities who raided his home she was his aunt.
The charges Mr. Okyere faces carry combined maximum penalties of up to 17 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000. He also faces possible deportation.
What! Possible deportation! Possible deportation! Deport him now and save the taxpayers the cost of keeping him in prison! More here.
I couldn’t find a photo of the Ghana illegal alien man, but wondered if that might be him standing outside of his aunt’s business!
What can you do?
This is one more story that should be reported in the mainstream media so Americans would have a better idea of the kinds of frauds to watch for and the kinds of fraudsters that are out there. Best thing you can do is to send this story out to your social media networks. Be sure to mention the student visa fraud!
A social worker, employed through a contract with Catholic Charities of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland was supposed to be checking on and protecting the nine children in the Rodriguez home, but instead she had cooked up a deal with the children’s mother to obtain the family’s food stamps.
In exchange she allegedly turned a blind eye to abuse and deplorable living conditions that resulted in the death of a five-year-old boy whose body was buried in the back yard.
The case became known to the police when someone called from PAKISTAN with a tip! WTH!
This is the latest news fromCleveland.com:
Estate of Cleveland boy found buried in back yard sues Catholic Charities
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The estate of a 5-year-old Cleveland boy whose body was found in late 2017 buried behind his mother’s house has filed a lawsuit against the social services arm of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland that employed the worker who was supposed to keep tabs on the family.
The survivorship of Jordan Rodriguez filed the wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court against Catholic Charities, its employee Nancy Caraballo, the boy’s mother Larissa Rodriguez and her boyfriend Christopher Rodriguez. Nancy Caraballo The suit accuses Catholic Charities and Caraballo of recklessness, negligence and failing to report abuse the boy suffered in the two years leading up to his death.The estate, administrated by Michelle Rodriguez, seeks to take the case before a jury.
“While we cannot at this time comment on what is alleged in the lawsuit, Catholic Charities protects and advocates for those who are most vulnerable,” the statement said. “All employees undergo thorough background checks and extensive training with regard to ethics and specifically their duties to report child abuse or neglect.” Jordan’s body was discovered buried in the family’s backyard in December 2017, after Cleveland police received a call from Pakistan that said Christopher Rodriguez confessed to burying the child.
Investigators responding to the call found the home in deplorable condition, and it wasn’t long before they uncovered that Caraballo, a parent educator at an agency contracted with Catholic Charities who was assigned to the Rodriguez family, had been buying Larissa Rodriguez’s food stamps at discounted prices and lying in her reports of her visits.
Caraballo was supposed to conduct monthly home visits to check on Rodriguez’s children and living conditions and file a report each time. But investigators subpoenaed her cellphone records and compared text messages between Caraballo and Rodriguez to the reports and found that, on at least 12 occasions, Caraballo simply showed up to Rodriguez’s house to pick up the food stamp card. She filed false reports that said she inspected the home.
More here.
The case will make you sick!
In February Caraballo plead not guilty here.
Then herein April she was sentenced to 3 years for the food stamp fraud.
And, now get this, she reformed in jail and was out in six months, here.
As is usual there is no mention of the immigration status of either Caraballo or the Rodriquez duo.
But I am interested in why a call to police came from Pakistan. Were there Pakistani convenience store proprietors in on the food stamp fraud?
That is just the money recovered in successful health care fraud cases. Imagine how much more goes undetected! Here is the news of the Department of Justice’s annual report for 2018 for legal judgements under the federal False Claims Act. (Fascinating! the Act has been around since the Civil War.)
I know this might sound pretty boring, but you need to know about it especially as some of the successes come from “whistleblowers” who are able to make some serious money while unearthing fraud in primarily (in this case) the health care sector.
So, if you work for a doctor or hospital and notice some strange financial transactions, or see something suspicious on your Medicare statements, keep this in mind!
From a report by the law firmHolland & Knight:
In December 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released its annual statistics for its civil False Claims Act (FCA) and fraud cases from the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018 (fiscal year 2018). The DOJ reports it recovered $2.8 billion in settlements and judgments for Fiscal Year 2018. Of the $2.8 billion recovered in fiscal year 2018, $2.5 billion involved the healthcare industry—the ninth consecutive year that the DOJ’s civil health care fraud settlements and judgments have exceeded $2 billion.
[….]
….the FCA is used by the U.S. government to combat healthcare fraud and also serves as the primary civil remedy for redressing false claims involving federal government contracts, grants, and federally-funded programs. FCA cases can originate in one of two ways: (1) actions brought by the DOJ, or (2) actions brought by whistleblowers, known as relators, who are entitled to a portion of any proceeds recovered through settlement or judgment. In the latter actions, called qui tam actions, the case is filed under seal and the DOJ is given a period of time to evaluate the allegations and decide whether to intervene (i.e. take over the case). If DOJ declines to intervene, the relator may proceed with the action and potentially receive a greater cut of the recovery.
[….]
…in the healthcare industry newly brought qui tam cases are down while non-qui tam cases are slightly up.
[….]
The increase in government-initiated healthcare cases may be attributable to enforcement initiatives such as the nationwide Medicare Strike Force Teams. These teams, which are scattered throughout the United States, focus on criminal and civil health care fraud.
Feds are increasing the number of US Attorneys in key hot spots!
The trend line for government-initiated FCA actions should increase over the next few years. DOJ recently added a cadre of new affirmative civil enforcement attorneys, whose role will include initiating cases under the FCA. The new Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) are being placed throughout the country—and offices where there is a hotbed of government contracting and healthcareare receiving more than one new AUSA. While most U.S. Attorney’s Offices will receive one additional AUSA for affirmative civil enforcement, DOJ announced that offices such as Colorado, Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Eastern District of New York, Southern District of New York, and Eastern District of Virginia, would receive two.
This got me thinking. Have you seen any funny money business going on with the US Refugee Admissions Program and the Dept. of Health and Human Services contractors?
If so, think about this avenue to bring attention to possible fraud! You might actually make a few bucks in the process!
Afterthought: I need to be sure to let new readers know why I write this blog, here is my “welcome” post from January first.
If the Democrats’ intransigence on border security for which a small amount of money is required for a barrier along our southern border (as another caravan is on the way) puzzles you, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh describes this as a much larger pivotal moment for America.
We all know the Democrats depend on immigrant voters—they want more of them and want the ones they have to be happy (with their social services!). The immigrant numbers beef-up certain Congressional districts controlled by Dems as well.
In addition, the business community wants the cheap “new American” laborers and both the Dems and some Republicans are working to provide them with an uninterrupted supply of those.
Yeh, we get that.
Of course we have no idea what the President will say to the nation today at 3 p.m., but he can’t give an inch because as Limbaugh said on Thursday, the stakes are too high.
Important day in US history? What will the President say today?
(An aside: As you know I watch the phony baloney at CNN each morning to see where the Leftwing media is going on any given day. Yesterday they were all a tither (we got him now!) about the now discredited BuzzFeed story. Today they quietly, and not as their lead story, reported the bombshell of last evening that Mueller’s team has said the story is wrong. Of course the reporting yesterday gives all of us more evidence of the media bias against this President and frankly against us!)
What follows is atranscriptof the Rush Limbaugh show on Thursday, hat tip: Paul.
For all of us wondering how Nancy Pelosi could even have thought going on a foreign taxpayer-funded junket right now made any political sense, Rush’s comments make it clear. To heck with the poor government workers who aren’t being paid, creating chaos and strife and making sure Trump loses is key to the Democrat’s (and the Swamp’s!) future.
I know it is long and although Rush (effectively) repeats his points, read it all. Added emphasis is mine.
RUSH: I want to try to have as many people as possible understand what is really going on here.
And the first thing that I have to tell you, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, and I’m not exaggerating, and I’m not trying to be provocative, and I’m not trying to make anybody mad. Nancy Pelosi doesn’t care one whit about the hardships of anybody or anything during this shutdown. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Party care about one thing: making sure that nobody like Donald Trump ever tries this again. The message being sent here is that somebody Washington disapproves of being elected president is going to be shut downand will not be cooperated with and nothing will ever get done because the objective here is twofold. It’s to get rid of Donald Trump and then to paralyze Donald Trump. Paralyze him first, get rid of him, and then send the signal, you Republicans better never, ever send somebody like this, because it’s gonna end up being like this every damn time, ’cause we’re not gonna do business with somebody like this. We’re not gonna let somebody like this ever be legitimate.
That’s what this is. It is nothing about the shutdown. It’s nothing about the hardships that are being faced. It’s not even about the wall! Pelosi and the Democrats, as you said, have supported a wall in the past. This is about making sure, about doing everything they can do to make sure that this guy who they despise does not have one demonstrable success so that nobody like him will ever, ever try this again.
This is a long-term message to everybody outside Washington, everybody outside the Washington political class, the elites, whatever, you’re not welcome here, and we will damage whatever it takes to make sure none of you ever end up here again. And those of you who voted for this, don’t you ever do this again. Your votes are wasted. You’re not gonna get one thing you want, you’re not gonna get anything, and we’ll be glad for all this destruction to send the message that you don’t get to do this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Right after I just made my point to the last caller and to — let me briefly repeat it. Nancy Pelosi and most of the Democrats have a singular message in all this, and it has nothing to do with the wall or with the money or any of this. We have two years until the — actually less — ’til the next presidential election. And that’s all this is. This is Pelosi and the Democrats swearing that no matter what Trump wants, if it’s gonna make him look good, presidential, if it’s gonna help the Republican Party, it isn’t happening. But there’s more than that. This is really about Nancy Pelosi — I cannot — I’ve tried to describe this numerous times. I’ve tried a bunch of different ways. I cannot, I don’t believe, adequately describe for you how personally despised and resented Donald Trump is and those of you who voted for him.
I mean, folks, there is visceral hatred. Donald Trump being elected president, not just beating Hillary, but just being elected is the equivalent of a killer virus being released in Washington. And they have stop it. They have to kill the virus.That’s Trump and you who voted for him. This was never supposed to happen. The governed are never supposed to have this much influence over what happens in that town. You’re not supposed to have anywhere near this much say over what your government does. You’re not supposed to have much say at all.
You get to vote, but beyond that, (raspberry) you. And Trump brought you with him to Washington. Trump is doing everything he can to keep every promise he made. I cannot tell you how offensive that is to them. I can’t tell you how disruptive it is. I can’t tell you how they are livid about it. And this whole government shutdown and the intransigence that Pelosi has, the unwillingness to even negotiate anything here is purely and simply about making sure that none of this is ever seen as legitimate.
It’s always, if she has her way, gonna be seen as one of the most oddball things that ever happened in American history that was a pure quirk of fate, it was abnormal, it was not supposed happen, and because of that, it’s not going to be legitimized. The previous two years have been all about that, not legitimating President Trump, his agenda, his voters, especially now, ’cause everybody’s racing to get ready for the 2020 presidential election. As far as Pelosi and her side are convinced, it’s all about getting rid of Trump and it’s all about erasing these past two years, it’s about erasing the two years of the campaign that led to Trump. And it’s personal. And it is literally governed by a visceral hate. This is why there is no compromise here. Some of you are saying, “Well, how do you think Trump can win?” I think the longer this goes on, the more people are gonna see this for what it is. The longer it goes on, the greater opportunity for people to finally see the Democrat Party as they are, who they are and so forth. Not a slam dunk.
But there is no way in my book they get away with delegitimizing you and your votes in 2016. There’s no way they get away with essentially saying, “You don’t really count. You count on Election Day if you vote the right way, but other than that we couldn’t care less about you.” The Democrat Party agenda is aimed at undermining everything you believe in. The Democrat Party is championing everybody who isn’t you. Sanctuary cities, open borders, anything that disrupts the foundational structure of this country — and I mean foundational, from the days of the founding — that’s their agenda.
So here’s the tweet from Charles Grassley, senator from Iowa. “Good news for Iowa farmers: USDA will reopen 37 Farm Service Agency offices in Iowa during partial govt shutdown. Seems to me Trump admin trying to help ease burden of shutdown & Pelosi trying to maximize + refusing to negotiate or even show up.”
Exactly! Exactly! I got this tweet during the break, after I had made my original point, but he’s exactly right. Pelosi is trying to maximize the burden on everybody so you’ll not never (sic) do this again. She wants you getting hurt! She wants you suffering! She wants you thinking you’re responsible for this. You elected Trump! This is what happens when you send somebody to Washington they don’t prove of. You deserve to be suffering, damn it, for this act of insolence of yours. It’s bad enough when you elect a traditional Republican like George W. Bush, but this? You’re going to pay.
And Grassley here is exactly right. And it is about exactly that, folks. It’s, “I wish Pelosi would negotiate, we need to put the air traffic controllers back, certainly some –” Pelosi doesn’t care about the air traffic controllers! She doesn’t care! In fact, the more chaos and the more disruption, the bigger the opportunity for her and others like her and her party.
Creating chaos and disruption is a tired old strategy of the Communists and Socialists as they attempt to undermine governments, but it’s a long subject for another day!
More from Rushhere.
Sure hoping and praying the President stays strong this afternoon!
This story from Fargo, ND this week got me thinking.
Refugees and tuberculosis: After Fargo commissioner expresses fears, other officials offer perspective
Before I tell you more about the apparent sudden realization by some in North Dakota that refugees are admitted to the US with tuberculosis (I was shocked by that fact in 2007!), know that this is how and why the US Refugee Admissions Program has become reviled by many: the contractors and promoters of it keep secret certain things they don’t want the public to know because the general public would find it unacceptable. When citizens learn the truth, then they believe they have been lied to!
One such example involves the issue of the infectious diseases that are permitted entry to the US with the refugee flow. (A separate issue is the one involving diseases that arrive with illegal aliens and travelers.) Symptoms and signs to watch for!
We permit refugees with Latent TB and HIV entry to the US and then we, the taxpayers, must fund their medication and the cost of tracking those people through our local health departments. There is even some evidence that we have admitted refugees with active TB as well. (See one of many stories on that subject at Breitbart, here.)
Just recently the CDC(Centers for Disease Control) put out ananalysis of their datafrom 2017 which confirms that, yes, we have thousands of active cases of TB in the US and most involve immigrants. Asians top the list (that would include refugees from Burma).
Here is thenews from Fargothat attracted my attention:
FARGO — City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn proposed this week to cut off refugee resettlement in Fargo after airing concerns about local refugees who carry tuberculosis. His proposal floundered after other commissioners did not support it.
Now we have the media scurrying to put peoples’ minds at ease!
We talked with health and refugee resettlement officials about TB, a potentially serious infectious bacterial disease that mainly affects the lungs, and got some perspective on the issue.
In 2018, Cass County had 133 cases of latent TB. Those are cases in which someone carries TB, but isn’t contagious. Of those 133, 24 were refugees. There were also five active cases of TB, none of which were refugees.
Desi Fleming
Monday’s City Commission meeting took a contentious turn after Piepkorn called for a stop to refugee resettlement in Fargo. “People will die,” he said. His concern appeared to be with the 24 refugees carrying latent TB.
Desi Fleming, public health director for Fargo Cass Public Health, explained why people with latent TB are not considered a threat. “Someone with latent tuberculosis can not spread the disease to others,” she told WDAY-TV. She said anyone with latent TB would be watched closely and caught before they posed a health risk.
“People with latent TB have no restrictions. They are being followed medically. They’re on treatment, and the treatment kills the germs inside the body,” Fleming said.
Continue reading here.
Once again, we see the effort being made to lull concerned citizens back to sleep. Here(under Prevention Challenges), and in response to Ms. Fleming, is what the CDC said just last month on the issue of latent TB and the problem with managing it so it doesn’t become active!
Treatment duration and completion
~Treatment TB disease can be lengthy. Patients are often unable or reluctant to take medication for several months. For people with TB disease, inadequate treatment can lead to treatment failure, relapse, ongoing transmission, and development of drug resistance. ~For people with latent TB infection, medication for a condition with no symptoms of illness is often not a priority.
So Ms. Fleming can say she is watching her latent TB immigrants carefully, but is everyone? How about when they move from one meatpacking town to another, are they tracked? Does someone make sure they are taking their meds after they move? And, how about the fact that taxpayers are paying for all of this!
I debated with myself about whether this news fits my overall theme here at Frauds, Crooks and Criminals, but obviously decided that deceiving citizens by keeping important information about “new Americans” from us is a form of fraud. What do you think?
