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You have to take notes to keep track of all the flavors of fraud being uncovered in California. Not that you would read about even half of it in the SF Comicle or other establishment press. The drumbeat is loud elsewhere, and today’s drum majorettes are highlighting the “wildlife butterfly bridge” in LA to help mountain lions cross 101 in Agoura Hills. Scoped at $50 million in 2022, it’s now at $114M and counting since it’s not finished. Considering its short span (210 feet), it might rival high-cost rail or the state capitol annex on a percentage basis.

It turns out the $31 billion with a “b” EDD fraud is just the tip of the fraud iceberg. There’s the homeless-industrial complex fraud, the drug treatment center fraud, Medicaid fraud, autism fraud, hospice fraud, Proposition signature gathering fraud, the community college financial aid fraud, the commercial driver’s license fraud, the non-profit fraud and the cap-and-trade sleight of hand.

I’m sure there are more flavors, so we will just use this post as the “fraud bucket” to be continually filled. When you hear we need this bond measure or that tax rate increase or that new fee, remember how leaky the bucket is.

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5 responses to “The Many Flavors of California Fraud”

  1. Phinancier

    This one fits the where there is smoke there is fire mold. https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/09/california-capitol-annex-project-audit/

  2. Phinancier

    It is a good thing California Attorney General Rob Bonta is actively rooting out title theft and fraud against California seniors. Oops. The feds are doing his job for him again.

    FBI agents swarmed the North Hollywood mansion of an accused fraudster who allegedly worked with an identity-theft syndicate led by an illegal Iranian migrant to steal $17 million from wealthy Los Angeles homeowners.

  3. Phinancier

    Don’t forget the SNAP fraud. If you think it is just these five people I have a bridge for sale

    Five people who were charged in connection to the Feeding Our Future scheme pleaded guilty to wire fraud this week.

    According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the five people stole $14.6 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program money that was meant to feed hungry children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  4. Joe

    Unfortunately this is not an April Fool’s joke:

    LOS ANGELES – A Tennessee rapper who wrote a song bragging about getting rich off a pandemic relief program was sentenced to more than six years in prison Wednesday, according to the Department of Justice.

    Fontrell Antonio Baines, 33, also known by his rap name “Nuke Bizzle,” was sentenced to 77 months, just under six and a half years in prison, and was also ordered to pay more than $700,000 in restitution to the California Employment Development Department. Baines pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud back in July 2022. He’s also pleaded guilty to two other crimes — unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon in California, and possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute in Tennessee.

    According to the DOJ, Baines abused the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program to collect more than $700,000. Baines admitted in his plea deal to getting and using debit cards pre-loaded with unemployment benefits administered by California EDD. The debit cards were issued in the names of third parties, including identity theft victims.

    In one instance, according to the DOJ, Baines used the identity of a Missouri man who briefly attended school – but never worked – in California to apply for unemployment benefits. In September 2020, Baines used a debit card issued in the Missouri man’s name to withdraw approximately $2,500.

    In the music video for his song “EDD,” Baines talks about doing “my swagger for EDD,” and holds up a stack of envelopes from EDD, saying he’s going “to the bank with a stack of these.”
    —————————
    So simple an out of state rapper figured it out.

  5. Joe

    The CEO of Lexis-Nexis Risk Solutions Government just released a statement that he warned the state about massive unemployment fraud and pleaded with them to not let the money go out like that. They ignored him. “At one point, California had more people applying for unemployment than there were adults in the entire state”. That his quote.

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