This isn’t a juicy frauds and crooks story like some I’ve reported lately, but it is a useful one sent to me by a reader.
The FTC last week reported a summaryof what kinds of consumer frauds were trending and tells us which states are the most fraud-ridden (or at least the states where in 2018 people reported that they had been defrauded).
And get this…..
There was a 38% jump in the amount of money lost to fraud in 2018 over 2017, says the FTC!
New American anchor babies here we come!
You might have seen the news about the big federal bust of a Chinese fraud ring responsible for bringing in pregnant Chinese women to give birth so that their babies would have US citizenship, but why is this the first big bust?
This scam on America has been going on probably for decades. I’ve been hearing about it for more then ten years!
I repeat: Why did the US government permit this to go on so long? (long enough for the perps to become millionaires!).
Here is the Fox News story, but for more of the disgusting details see the Department of Justice press release,here.
19 charged in Chinese ‘birth tourism’ crackdown: US prosecutors
Federal authorities charged 19 people on Thursday in the first crackdown on birth tourism businesses, which prosecutors say bring hundreds of pregnant women from China to the United States. Among the arrested were Dongyuan Li, 41, whose business was called “You Win USA,” which coached pregnant Chinese women on how to get into the United States to deliver babies. Those infants would then enjoy all the benefits of American citizenship. Over two years, she raked in millions through her business, where mothers-to-be paid between $40,000 and $80,000 each to come to California, stay in an upscale apartment and give birth, authorities said.
Jing Dong, 42, and Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 53, who allegedly operated “USA Happy Baby,” also were arrested.
More than a dozen others, including the operator of another such business, also face charges but are believed to have returned to China, said the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
“America’s way of life is not for sale,” said Joseph Macias, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, in a statement to Fox News.
Homeland Security “will aggressively target those who would make a mockery of our laws and our values to benefit and enrich themselves.”
[….]
While it isn’t illegal to visit the United States while pregnant, authorities said the businesses — which were raided by federal agents in 2015 — touted the benefits of having U.S. citizen babies, who could get free public education and years later help their parents immigrate.
More here.
Be sure to see the DOJ press releasewith more gory details.
Note that many of those whose indictments are now unsealed have left the country.
Here is one paragraph that you need to see which tells you that our Justice Department took a helluva long time to go after these Chinese crooks.
You Win USA!
The federal investigation into Dongyuan Li’s You Win USA scheme has resulted in seizure and/or forfeiture proceedings against three real properties with millions of dollars in equity, including her $2.1 million residence in Irvine; six vehicles, including four Mercedes Benz vehicles; more than $1 million from bank accounts; and many gold bars and coins.
By the way, China is not the only country sending its nationals to the US for this scam, I see that the Russians are doing it as well. And, I am sure those two countries are not alone in taking advantage of us.
What should you do?
Spread this news as far and wide as you can, don’t allow it to be a flash-in-the-pan national story!
Thinking about running for political office? You could and should build your whole campaign around fighting fraud! It would be a winner!
If you thought Judicial Watch was only doing Freedom of Information Act requests to get the federal government’s deepest secrets divulged, you would be wrong.
Last week the Washington, DC based conservative legal watchdog announced it had won a federal lawsuit that now forces Los Angeles County to clean up its voter rolls.
From Judicial Watch(hat tip: Chris):
Judicial Watch announced on January 3 that it signed a settlement agreement with the State of California and County of Los Angeles under which they will begin the process of removing from their voter registration rolls as many as 1.5 million inactive registered names that may be invalid. These removals are required by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
The NVRA is a federal law requiring the removal of inactive registrations from the voter rolls after two general federal elections (encompassing from 2 to 4 years). Inactive voter registrations belong, for the most part, to voters who have moved to another county or state or have passed away.
Los Angeles County has over 10 million residents, more than the populations of 41 of the 50 United States. California is America’s largest state, with almost 40 million residents.
[….]
In its lawsuit, Judicial Watch alleged:
~Los Angeles County has more voter registrations on its voter rolls than it has citizens who are old enough to register. Specifically, according to data provided to and published by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Los Angeles County has a registration rate of 112 percent of its adult citizen population.
~The entire State of California has a registration rate of about 101 percent of its age-eligible citizenry.
~Eleven of California’s 58 counties have registration rates exceeding 100 percent of the age-eligible citizenry.
Hereis a 20 minute video in which Senior Attorney & Director of JW’s Election Integrity Project Robert Popper explains how they won.
Read the press releasebecause you will see that JW has successfully sued, or is suing, other states!
Have you thought about checking with your county election board and asking them if they are cleaning up their voter rolls?
Editor: If you are new to Frauds and Crooks, see my welcome-to-my-website post here.
Some are, but maybe not your local friendly, helpful health professional! You can bet the drug industry and the Medicare fraudsters were happy to see Sessions out as Attorney General
A little over six months ago, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a major federal crackdown on doctors, pharmacists and other health providers for fueling the opioid crisis and using your Medicare and Medicaid dollars to line their pockets.
Here is a bit of one story about Sessions’ announcement.
From State NewsJune 28, 2018:
Federal agencies on Thursday announced charges in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called “the largest health care fraud takedown in American history,” an investigation into over $2 billion in alleged fraud by doctors, pharmacists, and nurses.
Many of the allegations centered on illegitimate opioid prescriptions. The Justice Department charged 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, for their roles dispensing opioids and narcotics, the result of investigations spanning 30 state Medicaid programs and numerous enforcement agencies.
[….]
“Some of our most trusted medical officials, professionals, look at their patients, vulnerable people suffering from addiction, and they see dollar signs,” Sessions said.
The alleged fraud and false billings collectively accounted for 13 million illegal opioid dosages, the Justice Department said, and also included 23 pharmacists and 19 nurses.
The Department of Health and Human Services also announced that since July 2017, it has excluded over 2,700 individuals and 587 providers from Medicare and Medicaid “for conduct related to opioid diversion and abuse” — including 67 doctors, 402 nurses, and 40 pharmacy services.
Here are a couple of more recent cases of Pharmacy fraud
Don’t miss my post from last week about Pharmacist Haytham “Tom” Fakihin Dearborn, Michigan. Florida Fraudster
From a Justice Department Press release in December, here.
The owner of a Miami, Florida-area pharmacy who caused Medicare to pay more than $8.4 million over a six-year period for prescription drugs that were never provided to beneficiaries was sentenced today to 87 months in prison.
[….]
Antonio Perez Jr., 48, of Miami Beach, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno of the Southern District of Florida, who also ordered Perez to pay $8,415,824 in restitution and to forfeit the same amount. Perez was ordered to forfeit four Miami-area properties worth approximately $700,000 and multiple bank accounts totaling over $250,000. Perez previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
[….]
During the course of the scheme, Medicare paid Valles Pharmacy Discount over $32 million, of which at least $8.4 million was for prescription drugs that Valles Pharmacy never purchased and never provided to Medicare beneficiaries, Perez admitted.
The owner of Akhtamar Pharmacy will be sentenced in February.
California case ***Update*** Tatarian gets four years in the ‘big house.’ See here.
Also in December a federal jury found Pharmacist Tamar Tatarian, 39, of Pasadena, California guilty of a Medicare fraud scheme after she billed Medicare $1.3 million for drugs she never purchased or distributed.
You will be interested to see that she was one of those caught in Sessions’ big sweep earlier this year.
Tatarian, the owner of Akhtamar Pharmacy, will be sentenced next month.
Secret decoder ring at work! Tatarian must be Armenian. See the Legend of Akhtamar. My reference to Secret decoder ring comes from Ann Coulter’s ‘Adios America’ where she rightly points out that readers of news stories about crooks and criminals must search for clues about where the alleged perp might come from and how he/she got in to the country.
Exception! See yesterday’s postabout the Russians ripping off Washington staters! There the reporter actually says where those arrested were from.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (a Democrat activist says his bio) is in the hot seat. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla cannot say for sure whether non-citizens voted in California last year
In April of 2018, California began automatically registering voters when they obtained a Driver’s License.
(California is one of twelve states that allows illegal aliens to obtain licenses.)
However, apparently problems developed with a confusing questionnaire at the time the non-citizen was obtaining a license. Padilla is blaming the DMV and the California Department of Technology for the screw-up.
The story at the Sacremento Bee is a little confusing, but a key line near the end sums it up:
Blame aside, Padilla and his critics agree the registration errors undermine voter confidence in California’s election systems.
Here are some more snips from the story (emphasis is mine):
California officials still can’t say whether non-citizens voted in the June 2018 primary because a confusing government questionnaire about eligibility was created in a way that prevents a direct answer on citizenship.
[….]
The email shows that, for months, California officials have been examining whether non-citizens voted last year. On Thursday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla confirmed for the first time that his office has an active internal investigation into the matter.
“The Secretary of State’s office does not comment on the details of ongoing investigations,” the office said in a statement. “Determining whether ineligible individuals who were erroneously registered to vote by the DMV cast ballots requires a complete review. The Secretary of State’s office is doing its due diligence by conducting a thorough investigation.”
Spokesmen for the office declined to say how the department could otherwise determine citizenship of those registered. While the office is confident non-citizens were unable to vote in the November general election, it remains unsure about the June primary. Since the DMV started automatically registering people to vote on April 23, 2018, it has acknowledged making 105,000 processing errors out of more than 2.4 million transactions. At least one non-citizen has come forward to say he was improperly added to the voter rolls in the latest batch of errors.
One honest non-citizen came forward to admit he was not eligible to vote!
Then this next bit is amusing (sort of). It is not voter fraud if the fraudulent voter was registered to vote through a government error? But, surely the government didn’t take him to the polls!
“These registrations do not constitute voter fraud, as none of the individuals erroneously registered did so through any affirmative effort on their part,” Padilla wrote in a Nov. 9 letter to Moorlach [State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa].
Who could possibly believe that there aren’t cheaters voting in California? Once confidence in the electoral system has been eroded, especially in the 12 states that allow non-citizens to obtain Driver’s’ Licenses, how do you ever get it back?
What should you do?
If you thought 
Have you thought about checking with your county election board and asking them if they are cleaning up their voter rolls?
