Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman asked a judge to freeze payments to the victims of a $4 billion sexual abuse lawsuit settlement, claiming four out of five of the claims could be fraudulent, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.In April 2025, Los Angeles County agreed to pay $4 billion to settle more than 11,000 claims of sexual abuse in county-run juvenile halls and foster homes, making it the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S.history.But an LA Times investigation discovered nine plaintiffs who said they were paid by recruiters to join the class-action lawsuit, four of whom, the paper reported, said their claims were entirely fraudulent.Hochman launched his investigation shortly after the LA Times investigation went public.JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO PAY NEARLY $116M TO INMATES SEXUALLY ABUSED AT CALIFORNIA PRISON DUBBED THE 'RAPE CLUB'"They looked at this opportunity to compensate these true victims of sex abuse as an opportunity to personally profit and engage in some of the most greedy and heinous conduct," Hochman said in a November 2025 news conference.
"We are going to aggressively go after them," he said.Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J.Hochman speaks at a press conference in Los Angeles on Dec.
16, 2025.(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)However, Hochman said then that the nine who came forward represented a small fraction of the "significant number of fraudsters involved in these settlement claims."Now, Hochman is claiming 80 percent of claimants could be fraudulent while asking the judge overseeing the case to freeze the payments for six months while he continues his investigation, according to the LA Times.Hochman's request would only apply to cases stemming from juvenile halls, the bulk of the cases in the lawsuit, according to the LA Times.LOS ANGELES COUNTY FACES SCRUTINY AFTER ALLEGED WIDESPREAD HOSPICE FRAUD EXPOSEDSince the LA Times released the results of its investigation, LA County has imposed extra scrutiny o...