California Unemployment Fraud Wastes Billions

Newsome seems uninterested.

Do you want to know what California has done with its COVID relief money? Too bad, the state doesn't even know, but it has lots of clues. San Mateo uncovered a massive prison scam in August, and it has only gotten worse since. Turns out that the taxpayers have even sent Scott Peterson $20,000 along with several serial killers and a couple who tortured an 9-year-old to death, and some people on death row. In some cases, checks were sent straight to the prisons.

But wait ... there's more:

In September, Beverly Hills cops uncovered a $2.5 million scam with state debit cards. In October, federal authorities arrested rapper Nuke Bizzle who rapped about ripping off the system for $1.2 million. He called the song, “EDD.”

This was all because Newsome set up a strike force to speed through unemployment claims, but it seems they did so without any kind of cross-checking to make sure the claims are legit.

Sacramento DA Schubert says it’s “a behemoth. This is massive. There is money going out of this state; there is money going out of this country.”

People whose identities have been stolen by fraudsters are also getting ripped off from benefits legitimately awarded to them. Authorities say the identities are put out on the dark web and used to apply for benefits. The system is so overwhelmed that the fraud hotline goes to an automated system, according to a woman whose identity was stolen to get EDD funds.

So it's a leaking sieve full of cash, and no one knows for sure where it's all going. There are reports that a 1-year-old was receiving checks. And to make matters worse, none of the DAs were tipped off to this scandal by anyone in Newsome's administration. They had to figure this out from federal subpoenas.

So when Nancy Pelosi angles to bail out her state, remember this is the kind of thing we're being asked to pay for.

Follow the money. After all, they're already in prison! Arrest their cohorts/beneficiaries and they can all sit in the can together.

Or not... Who knows, they probably adjusted for fraud to mask even more widespread fraud at the top.🤷🏾‍♂️

And the food bank lines just keep getting longer.. 🤦🏾‍♂️

By all means, follow the money...

Trump Organization, Kushner Companies benefited from pandemic relief loans: report

Businesses at properties owned by the Trump Organization and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s family reportedly received more than two dozen Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans worth more than $3.65 million.
...
NBC reported that 15 of those properties self-reported that after receiving the PPP loans, they kept only one employee, did not keep any employees or did not report how many workers they retained.

I started this thread to talk about this issue to underscore the mismanagement of government funds in states like California who now want federal bailouts out of the COVID Aid packages being tossed around Congress.

Newest estimates say they lost as much 8 Billion!

David Goldstein, a CBS Los Angeles reporter, has been digging deep into California’s EDD fraud from the beginning. According to a new study by the California Center for Jobs and Economy, Unemployment insurance fraud in the state could top $8 billion!

And still no one shows much, if any interest, in pursuing investigations into how this happened and prosecuting those who stole money. Meanwhile, many who applied clear back in April *still* have not received any aid at all!

People were wondering in another thread why so many are hungry ... well, in Cali, we have some idea now. 8 billion of the money that was supposed to help them was stolen and the government doesn't care one bit where it went.

Even better, two of the top officials in the state who would be interested and whose job it would be to tackle fraud at this level of this magnitude are busy chasing bigger and better opportunities instead of doing their jobs. Xavier Becerra thinks he deserves to be in charge of our health care as HHS Sec, and Alex Padilla thinks he ought to be appointed to serve out Comma-LA's term. Right now, they're AG and SoS of California.

I'm sure nothing will go awry in HHS with Becerra in charge after he's allowed 8 billion in state funds to be defrauded so easily.

Imagine that, the state with the highest total debt, doesn't care about 8 billion in waste/fraud.

I sure hope someday we get to see California try to make it on their own. Can't provide their own water or electricity for the people, state debt 10x other countries, but sure they could survive on their own.