From Medi-Cal fraud to a Nigerian chieftain

We always suspected that Medi-Cal fraud was expensive.We didn’t realize it was ridiculous.Last week, the California Post reported on a staggering $269 million scheme run by a “mega fraudster” who ripped off the state’s version of Medicaid, which provides health coverage for the poor.He was caught, tried, and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

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Rufo and Madeleine Rowley of the Manhattan Institute ran an éxposé, also published in the California Post, on Nathan Ogbatue, a Nigerian chieftain who had made a fortune by charging Medi-Cal for in-home health care.Ogbatue’s company had made very little money in California until it suddenly made tens of millions of dollars after the coronavirus pandemic.He bought expensive real estate in Southern California and built a palace back home, where he spreads the wealth around among his grateful subjects.He has not been accused of wrongdoing, but experts raised red flags.And he accused journalists of racism rather than defending his odd business pattern.Medi-Cal is just one piece of the overall fraud picture in California.

But it is a big one.The program exploded in 2024, after Gov.Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-run state Legislature expanded eligibility for Medi-Cal to illegal immigrants.California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!It was a version of “Medicare for All.” But it nearly collapsed.Newsom had to stop new enrollments last year, after monthly losses ran into billions of dollars.But Demo...