In what could be the greatest get-rich-quick opportunity for Californians since the Powerball lottery, the White House has announced a new Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program. Simply go to a new website to “report cases of corruption and theft of taxpayer dollars” in your community, and you could earn a commission of 1%.
Let’s just hope that all the new yachts off the California coast don’t trigger a rise in sea level.
If California State Auditor Grant Parks is eligible for the commission payment, he should immediately upload his October 15 report calling out the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) for its faulty oversight of Medi-Cal provider payments.
The report reveals that although DHCS used risk assessment tools to identify 28,000 Medi-Cal providers with “inappropriate billing,” the department “has not researched or investigated 26,000 of these providers – who accounted for at least $12 billion in Medi-Cal services in fiscal year 2024-25.”
Two providers had billed almost $1.6 million after they had become ineligible to be Medi-Cal providers at all. One transportation provider billed $11 million for trips that improbably included 35 in one day, with nine of those trips more than 340 miles each. Other providers padded their bills by charging their ambulance rate for different vehicles, resulting in a $31 million overcharge to taxpayers.
There are luxury car dealership owners throughout the state who right now are calculating how many federal dollars are going into the fake hospice in the upstairs office of the strip mall down by the freeway ramp. Every 1% commission is a new customer.
Two Los Angeles Times reporters who investigated California’s $1 billion Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project could be in for a windfall if they can find that any federal money went into that mess. Sadly for all concerned, it seems to have been funded exclusively through state fees passed on as higher costs to Californians.
Otherwise the reporters would see a nice commission from tipping off the federal government that nearly $10 million in vouchers went to a company to pay for about 100 electric shuttle vans for riders in Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and the San Joaquin Valley, but almost $1 million was paid for vans that were sitting unassembled in a factory.
The Times also reported that the Attorney General’s office is investigating possible tampering with vehicle identification numbers in order to obtain subsidies more than once for the same vehicle.
Adding to the waste-and-fraud problem is the performance and maintenance issue. The Times reported that the electric vehicles are frequently off the road and in the shop. It doesn’t help at all that roughly one in four manufacturers has quit the business and left the fleets unsupported.
It would all add up to quite a payday if there was federal money involved.
The biggest jackpot in America has to be the California High-Speed Rail project. Even though the feds recently cut off funding, about $2.5 billion in federal money has been shoveled into the bullet train debacle already.
Imagine the commission that the High-Speed Rail Authority’s Office of Inspector General could collect just for its latest report on the outrageous travel expenses that were reimbursed with the taxpayers’ money.
Consultants for the high-speed rail project billed the rail Authority almost $600,000 for luxury travel. Instead of disallowing the expenses, the rail Authority paid them.
The records for 2024-25 and 2025-26 showed questionable charges for first-class and private plane air travel, plus premium Uber and Lyft rides to fun locations including a cigar lounge and a tiki bar. Taxpayers also reimbursed more than $118,000 in international travel costs, though international travel was not allowed under the contracts.
Over the last few years, the High-Speed Rail Authority has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on consulting services. That should be enough to meet the White House’s definition of “corruption and theft of taxpayer dollars.” After roughly $15 billion in total spending on the project, there’s still no train, which is probably saving lives because there are no tracks.
There’s federal money in education, housing programs, homeless services, CalFresh and CalTrans. Drop a dime and make a fortune.
With any luck, this time next year you’ll be stressing over the wealth tax.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley