I hope we are not finished with these adult foster care homes because these are the "promised land" for many aging out of foster care who do not wish to live on the streets.
FUN FACT! A CORPORATE PARENT IS ONLY OBLIGATED TO GIVE A RESIDENT $40 A MONTH FROM THE $771.00 MONTHLY SSI PAYMENT
The owners and operators of multiple Michigan adult foster care homes were sentenced today for federal tax crimes. Jeremiah Cheff was sentenced to 27 months in prison, and Nicolette Cheff was sentenced to two years of probation, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider for the Eastern District of Michigan.
According to court documents and the evidence presented at trial, Jeremiah and Nicolette Cheff (“the Cheffs”) owned and controlled the financial and business operations of 16 foster care homes that cared for individuals with mental illnesses and developmental and physical disabilities. From September 2010 through September 2014, the Cheffs withheld payroll taxes from employees’ paychecks, but failed to timely file payroll tax returns and pay over the withheld funds to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Jeremiah Cheff also failed to file several individual income tax returns and, when the IRS attempted to collect unpaid payroll taxes, he sent the IRS a false financial instrument claiming to be worth $80,000 and falsely claimed to a revenue officer that he had paid the taxes due.
On April 11, 2017, Nicolette Cheff pleaded guilty to failing to file an Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return and failing to file an Individual Income Tax Return.
On May 20, 2019, a jury found Jeremiah Cheff guilty of 60 counts of willfully failing to account for and pay over payroll taxes. He was also convicted of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the IRS, and failing to timely file his 2013 through 2015 individual income tax returns.
In addition to the term of imprisonment imposed, United States District Judge Linda V. Parker ordered Jeremiah Cheff to serve two years of supervised release, and ordered both to pay restitution in the amount of $199,647 to the IRS.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman and U.S. Attorney Schneider commended special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Trial Attorneys Jeffrey A. McLellan and Carl F. Brooker, IV, of the Tax Division, who prosecuted the case.
Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the Division’s website.
They do these OIG reports all the time and guess what happens?
Nothing.
Do you want to know why there is no compliance with the federal Medicaid waivers and state requirements in overseaing adult day care centers and adult foster care homes?
These are subcontracted by the states under foreign corporations, as corporate parents, and, therefore, the States have no jurisdicitonal standing to enforce any mandates, funded or unfunded, regulation, law, financial reporting requirements....you get the picture.
All the feds have to do is get that Conjugal Collaboration to terminate parental rights of all these corporations by bearing witness.
These corporate parents only, by law, have to give these individuals $50 a month from their Social Supplemental Income or other Social Security funds.
Daniel Levinson has been watching this crap for years, yet has been silent.
Perhaps, he was silent due to his passionate dedication to taking copious notes of what they do.
If our federal and States governments can allow the continuance in preserving the residuals of the peculiar institution, then, perhaps, it is time to just end the industry of salvaging souls.
Lala tells her story of how Michigan traffics tiny humans through corporate parental rights of privatization when it comes to the only legal source of income the survivors of the Michigan Child Welfare System are able to secure, Social Supplemental Income.
Typically, for most youth who age out the system, it is either SSI or a life on the streets that has been so flowerfully coined as human trafficking.
Yes, that is correct, there is lots of money to be made when it comes to stealin' the personae of children in foster care who are wards of the state.
I saw the Social Security Administration green screens back in the days, right after the passage of the Paperwork Reduction Act, which was used as a paper shredding opportunity for Administrative records on how Michigan was intercepting SSI payments of children in foster care and sending it to a bank out in Berkley, California, but I digress.
When you are a ward of the state, the state, more specifically, the Michigan Children's Institute becomes the legal guardian, where one person has legal guardianship over 10,000 children in care.
But now, Michigan is allowing corporations to file gurardianship over children in the care of the state, without any due process because children have no civil rights.
That is the basis of the Michigan Children's Rights case that Nancy Edmunds fails to understand the concept of Medicaid fraud in child welfare, or rather the trafficking of tiny humans, from CPS to adoption, or a life like Lala's.
If Wells Fargo was found to have misrepresented their quality of mortgage loans, then, just perhaps, Wells Fargo may be found to have also misrepresented their quality of administrative contracts for Social Security Administration electronic payments to "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth.)
See, there are lots of foster kids who have aged out or emancipated out of foster care, where the Social Supplemental Income monthly disability grant is all they have to live from on the streets.
Many of these youth, living in group homes, may only have, by law, $40 a month, with a transaction back fee for each time they use their cards to pick up a pop and bag of chips for a fleeting moment of comfort from their lives of hell in an Adult Foster Care setting.
Many of these youth, living in boarding homes, may only have after paying for room and board, only $300 a month, where there is a fee for each cash withdraw to take the bus to the food pantry or their monthly 5 minute psychiatric medication review appointment.
Many of these youth are homeless, ending up to be, what the latest buzz term is, "victims of human trafficking", which is just a watered down version of these youth having to resort to prostitution to eat because the culture of privatization, or what I like to call, the residuals of the peculiar institution, once they age out of foster care, which included juvenile justice.
Then, it must is an absolute to complete the anagogic process to understanding this particular child welfare fraud scheme, by asking yourself.....how many of these SSI payments and mortgages are granted under fake identities of kids who were legally kidnapped, but are all grown up, or dead, on paper, now?
Wells Fargo Agrees to Pay $2.09 Billion Penalty for Allegedly Misrepresenting Quality of Loans Used in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities
The Justice Department announced today that Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and several of its affiliates (Wells Fargo) will pay a civil penalty of $2.09 billion under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) based on the bank’s alleged origination and sale of residential mortgage loans that it knew contained misstated income information and did not meet the quality that Wells Fargo represented. Investors, including federally insured financial institutions, suffered billions of dollars in losses from investing in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) containing loans originated by Wells Fargo.
“This settlement holds Wells Fargo accountable for actions that contributed to the financial crisis,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “It sends a strong message that the Department is committed to protecting the nation’s economy and financial markets against fraud.”
“Abuses in the mortgage-backed securities industry led to a financial crisis that devastated millions of Americans,” said Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, Alex G. Tse. “Today’s agreement holds Wells Fargo responsible for originating and selling tens of thousands of loans that were packaged into securities and subsequently defaulted. Our office is steadfast in pursuing those who engage in wrongful conduct that hurts the public.”
FIRREA authorizes the federal government to seek civil penalties against financial institutions that violate various predicate criminal offenses, including wire and mail fraud. The United States alleged that, in 2005, Wells Fargo began an initiative to double its production of subprime and Alt-A loans. As part of that initative, Wells Fargo loosened its requirements for originating stated income loans – loans where a borrower simply states his or her income without providing any supporting income documentation.
To evaluate the integrity of its increasing volume of stated income loans, Wells Fargo subjected a sample of these loans to “4506-T testing.” A 4506-T form is a government document signed by the borrower during the loan approval process that allows the lender to obtain the borrower’s tax transcripts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 4506-T testing involves comparing the tax transcripts of the borrower with the income stated on the loan application. Wells Fargo implemented 4506-T testing on two of its programs. This testing revealed that more than 70% of the loans that Wells Fargo sampled had an “unacceptable” variance (greater than 20% discrepancy between the borrower’s stated income and the income information reflected in the borrower’s most recent tax returns filed with the IRS), and the average variance was approximately 65%. After receiving these results, Wells Fargo conducted further internal testing. This additional testing, performed by quality assurance analysts, was designed to determine if “plausible” explanations existed for the “unacceptable” variances over 20%. This additional step revealed that nearly half of the stated income loans that Wells Fargo tested had both an unacceptable variance and the absence of a plausible explanation for that variance.
The results of Wells Fargo’s 4506-T testing were disclosed in internal monthly reports, which were widely distributed among Wells Fargo employees. One Wells Fargo employee in risk management observed that the “4506-T results are astounding” yet “instead of reacting in a way consistent with what is being reported WF [Wells Fargo] is expanding stated [income loan] programs in all business lines.”
The United States alleged that, despite its knowledge that a substantial portion of its stated income loans contained misstated income, Wells Fargo failed to disclose this information, and instead reported to investors false debt-to-income ratios in connection with the loans it sold. Wells Fargo also allegedly heralded its fraud controls while failing to disclose the income discrepancies its controls had identified. The United States further alleged that Wells Fargo took steps to insulate itself from the risks of its stated income loans, by screening out many of these loans from its own loan portfolio held for investment and by limiting its liability to third parties for the accuracy of its stated income loans. Wells Fargo sold at least 73,539 stated income loans that were included in RMBS between 2005 to 2007, and nearly half of those loans have defaulted, resulting in billions of dollars in losses to investors.
The settlement was the result of a coordinated effort between the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, with investigative support from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of Inspector General.
The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only, and there has been no admission of liability.
Fun With Fraud: Wells Fargo, Child Poverty & The Social Security Trust Fund
This particular piece goes back a few months, but I just through it would be fund to my 2 cents into the mix by reminding everyone that Wells Fargo has those administrative contracts with SNAP, Child Support, TANF and those Social Security electronic payment cards.
Yup, there is major fraud in those child welfare programs and no one is talking about it.
The scheme goes like this:
Wells Fargo charges HHS lots of money to make sure "everyone granted eligible" ((that is code for "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth")) gets their benefits.
Wells Fargo charges fees for each transaction when "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) use their governmental issued Wells Fargo electronic benefits card.
The fee is deducted from the monthly benefits.
The fee is not part of the administrative contract, and quite frankly, I have no clue what happens to those fees.
So, what happens to those left over pennies when the local ATM refuses to dispense the granted benefits of Social Supplemental Income payments?
Acting Commissioner means she is not going to be there much longer, either.
Guiding Social Security Into The Next 80 Years: A Conversation With Carolyn W, Colvin In June 2014, the Obama administration nominated Carolyn W. Colvin to head the Social Security Administration (SSA). She has been serving as Acting Commissioner since February 2013, and, in August 2015, she will be on hand to observe the agency’s 80th anniversary. Colvin came out of retirement in 2010 to be the SSA’s Deputy Commissioner, and embodies so many of the characteristics and values older workers possess—she has formidable intelligence and experience, is calm under pressure and is thoroughly engaged in her work.
Robert Blancato, an ASA Board member who has previously worked with Colvin in Washington, D.C., interviewed her in late April about anti-fraud efforts, Social Security’s solvency and more.
Robert Blancato (RB): You are aggressively pursuing fraud cases. What programs are in place to prevent financial elder abuse, and how common a problem is it?
Carolyn Colvin (CC): The Social Security Administration [SSA] serves some of the most vulnerable individuals, not just the aged, but children and disabled people. Protecting seniors is a top priority. Financial exploitation is now an epidemic, and we are approaching it as we would a health epidemic, by joining forces with multiple agencies (we’re working with Kathy Greenlee at the Administration on Aging [AOA]) and finding ways to work collaboratively. SSA has always had zero tolerance for fraud, and [we] will tirelessly identify and prosecute, to the fullest extent of the law, anyone who commits fraud.
Quite simply, people receiving Social Security benefits are targets. When beneficiaries are incapable of managing their finances, SSA appoints a family member or friend to manage their benefits for them. We conduct annual accounting reviews for those individuals to see if benefits are being properly used. We still find it’s a critical issue [in that] we see some [benefits] misuse and fraud of our beneficiaries. We have two pilot projects to recruit and train representative payees so they have the skills and capacity to identify financial abuse, and to make sure we are selecting the right individuals to be representative payees. We’re partnering with local agencies to identify representative payees, and using a multi-disci-plinary training model to teach them how to understand and recognize abuse. This is a collaborative effort with the AOA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Corporation for National and Community Service, plus NAPSA [National Adult Protective Services Association] and the banking community, specifically Wells Fargo.
MADISON, Wis. – Social Security Administration Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin has announced she is stepping down.
You’ll excuse whistleblower employees of the scandal-plagued federal agency for not shedding any tears at Colvin’s departure.
“I’m ecstatic about it,” said one employee in the SSA’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, or ODAR, division. The employee, a whistleblower, asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.
In a “Farewell Message” email last week to Social Security Administration staff members, Colvin wrote that she has advised President Barack Obama that she will be leaving her position as acting commissioner at the end of the president’s term on Friday.
“I have devoted my life to public service, serving in positions at all levels of government, but serving here with all of you has been the greatest honor of my life,” Colvin wrote. “The times I have treasured the most are the times I have been able to visit your offices to speak with you about the important work we do, and about your dreams and aspirations. Those are some of my most joyous and inspirational times at SSA. You are truly the greatest public servants in government.”
STEPPING DOWN: Acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Carolyn Colvin told her employees last week that she is stepping down when President Barack Obama leaves office Friday.
In June 2014, Obama nominated Colvin to lead the agency, which boasts some 65,000 employees and is projected this year to pay out $1 trillion in federal benefits to 68.4 million recipients.
Senate Republicans blocked the appointment amid a “cloud hanging over” Colvin’s nomination. She had assumed the acting commissioner post in February 2013.
The Social Security Administration has been hammered by one negative report after another. A $300 million computer project failed. Designed to help hasten the process of disability claims, an audit found the program could handle just 700 of the millions of claims. Colvin’s defenders say the computer program was initiated under former SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, Colvin’s predecessor. Republicans, however, questioned whether SSA top administrators misled or withheld information from Congress about the scope of the problem.
The Government Accountability Office in 2013 estimated some 36,000 people picked up a combined $1.3 billion in erroneous payments over two years.
As Wisconsin Watchdog reported in May, whistleblower Ron Klym, a long-time case worker at the Milwaukee Office of Disability Adjudication and Review alleged grave due process violations in the system. Klym, who was fired in August, claims ODAR facilities operated “shell games” to make their processing numbers better than they were. He accused management of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and other incidents of misconduct.
Whistleblowers allege a “culture of corruption” at the Madison ODAR facility. An administrative law judge recently retired under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations. The hearing office director and another manager were removed from the office. Whistleblowers accuse management of bribery, nepotism, fraud, and retaliation, among other charges.
Sources say the SSA’s Office of Inspector General, which has been investigating the allegations for months, is preparing criminal and administrative reports on the probes.
Whistleblowers have reported misconduct allegations in SSA offices from West Virginia to California.
“I think she’s getting out while she can,” one whistleblower said of Colvin’s departure under a cloud of scandal.
In her farewell letter, Colvin told Social Security Administration employees they can be proud of numerous accomplishments “which represent our shared legacy.”
“Remember, each day, thousands and thousands of individuals may experience, for even a moment, hope, and if we are lucky, a better life, because of something you have been able to do for them,” the outgoing acting commissioner wrote.
This case also included adults who have aged out of foster care. Now, stand up and bow down in humble honor to the work of the U.S. Department of Justice, Albuquerque Division for taking these nefarious fraudfeasors out and returning the assets to the people. This goes on in every state in the United States and the time has come to end it.
Twenty-Eight Count Indictment Alleges that Co-Founders of Ayudando Guardians, Inc., Embezzled Millions from Client Accounts to Support Lavish Lifestyles
U.S. Marshals Service Assumes Control of Ayudando Guardians, Inc.,
to Ensure Continuity of Services for Special Needs Clients
ALBUQUERQUE – Federal law enforcement officials today announced the filing of conspiracy, fraud, theft and money laundering charges against Ayudando Alpha, Inc., d/b/a “Ayudando Guardians, Inc.” (Ayudando), and its co-founders, Susan Harris, 70, and Sharon Moore, 62, both residents of Albuquerque, N.M. The charges, which are contained in a 28-count indictment, arise out of an alleged decade-long sophisticated scheme to embezzle funds from client trust accounts managed by Ayudando, a non-profit corporation that provides guardianship, conservatorship and financial management services to hundreds of individuals with special needs.
According to the indictment, Ayudando – which means “helping” in Spanish – receives government benefit payments from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) on behalf of many of its clients, and acts as a fiduciary or representative payee for these clients by paying their expenses and maintaining the balances for the benefit of the clients. The indictment alleges that Harris and Moore, the primary owners and operators of Ayudando, have embezzled millions of dollars from their special needs clients to support lavish lifestyles for themselves and their families.
The charges against Ayudando, Harris and Moore are the result of an ongoing multi-agency investigation by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), VA Office of Inspector General and SSA Office of Inspector General. This morning federal law enforcement agents arrested Harris and Moore. Harris and Moore made their initial appearances in federal court in Albuquerque this morning. They are scheduled to return to court at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, July 20, 2017, to be arraigned on the indictment and for detention hearings.
Federal authorities also enforced a federal court order that authorized the USMS’s Complex Assets Unit to assume control of Ayudando’s business operations. The court order appoints the USMS as the Receiver and Monitor of Ayudando, including all its financial accounts. The order authorizes the USMS to operate the business to ensure that its assets are not improperly spent or removed, and that the interests of Ayudando clients are protected as the prosecution of the criminal case goes forward. The USMS’s operation of Ayudando will ensure continuity of services for Ayudando clients.
The charges against Ayudando, Harris and Moore were announced by Acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney, U.S. Marshal Conrad E. Candelaria, Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade of the Albuquerque Division of the FBI, Special Agent in Charge Ismael Nevarez Jr., of the Phoenix Field Office of IRS Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge Carl D. Scott of the Criminal Investigations Division of the VA’s Office of Inspector General, and Special Agent in Charge Robert Feldt of the Dallas Field Division of the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General.
In making the announcement, Acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney said, “This case is all about the victims. The victims in this case relied upon Ayudando to manage their finances and meet their needs. If the allegations in the indictment are true, the principals of Ayudando cruelly violated the trust of their clients and looted their benefits. Federal law enforcement has now stepped in to ensure that the looting stops. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and its partners will conduct this prosecution in a manner that provides for the continued receipt of benefits by Ayudando’s clients, while holding the principals of the company accountable for their conduct.”
“This morning the U.S. Marshals Service assumed control of Ayudando’s business operations to ensure that the victims of the crimes charged in the indictment, which include our disabled veterans, and other Ayudando clients will continue to receive the services they deserve and are entitled to,” said U.S. Marshal Conrad E. Candelaria. “The U.S. Marshals Service also will continue to assist its law enforcement partners in the continuing investigation.”
“Many of our most vulnerable Americans, such as those with special needs, trust fiduciaries to handle their government benefits for them. Unfortunately, there are plenty of criminals willing to steal what could be a person’s only source of income, using the money to support a lavish lifestyle,” said Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade of the FBI’s Albuquerque Division. “The FBI, working with our law enforcement and government partners, is committed to bringing to justice those individuals whose greed destroys the lives and dreams of innocent people.”
“The indictment alleges that, instead of helping people with special needs, the defendants were greedy and helped themselves to their clients’ money,” said Special Agent in Charge Ismael Nevarez Jr., of the Phoenix Field Office of IRS Criminal Investigation. “IRS Criminal Investigation will always investigate individuals who misuse non-profit businesses and cause harm to those whose needs are supposed to be served by those businesses.”
“Professional fiduciaries who defraud vulnerable veterans are reprehensible,” said Special Agent in Charge Carl D. Scott of the Criminal Investigations Division of the VA Office of Inspector General. “The VA OIG will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies to expose those who harm veterans or exploit VA benefits systems and bring them to justice.”
“The SSA OIG is committed to investigating cases of suspected representative payee fraud, which can involve the theft of government funds and harm some of our most vulnerable citizens,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert Feldt of the Dallas Field Division of the SSA Office of the Inspector General. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners and the U.S. Attorney's Office on this case.”
The 28-count indictment, which was filed under seal on July 11, 2017 and was unsealed and publicly posted earlier today, includes two conspiracy counts, ten counts of mail fraud, nine counts of aggravated identify theft and six counts of money laundering. According to the indictment, from Nov. 2006, when Harris and Moore founded Ayudando, and continuing until July 2017, Ayudando, Harris and Moore embezzled millions of dollars from Ayudando client accounts to cover their personal expenses and support lavish lifestyles for themselves and their families. The indictment alleges that Harris and Moore perpetuated the embezzlement scheme by:
Establishing Ayudando as a non-profit corporation in Nov. 2006, to position it as a guardian, conservator, fiduciary and representative payee for individuals needing assistance with their financial affairs;
Setting up client trust and company bank accounts which only they controlled;
Transferring funds from client accounts to Ayudando company accounts;
Using client funds to pay off more than $4 million in charges on a company credit card account used by Harris, Moore and their families for personal purposes;
Writing checks from Ayudando company accounts to themselves, cash and to cover personal expenses;
Replenishing depleted client accounts with funds taken from other clients;
Mailing fraudulent statements and certifications to the VA; and
Forging and submitting forged bank statements to the VA.
The indictment identifies some of the ways in which Harris and Moore used the money they allegedly stole from Ayudando clients. For example, the indictment alleges that between June 2011 and March 2014, Harris wrote 12 checks in the total amount of $457,883 on the Ayudando client reimbursement account for personal purpose, including a $50,950 check made out to Mercedes Benz of Albuquerque and a $26,444 check made out to Myers RV Center. It also alleges that between Jan. 2013 and Feb. 2017, Harris used an Ayudando company credit card to pay $140,790 to cover luxury vacations for herself and others, including cruises in the Caribbean isles and a “Final Four” basketball junket, while knowing that Moore would pay off the charges using client funds.
The mail fraud charges in the indictment describe some of the fraudulent documents allegedly mailed by Ayudando, Harris and Moore to the VA to perpetuate and conceal their embezzlement scheme. For example, between Jan. 2016 and Nov. 2016, Moore allegedly mailed fraudulent documents to the VA that falsely represented the balances in ten client accounts. According to the indictment, the documents falsely claimed that the ten client accounts had an aggregate balance of $1,906,908, when the actual value of the ten accounts was only $72,281. The ten client accounts identified in the indictment are examples of the fraud allegedly perpetrated by the defendants as part of their embezzlement scheme.
According to the indictment, Ayudando, Harris and Moore also engaged in aggravated identify theft by using their clients’ names, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers and VA file numbers to commit mail fraud offenses. Harris and Moore also allegedly committed money-laundering offenses by using $392,623 from the Ayudando client reimbursement account to pay off balances on a company credit card used by the defendants and their families for personal purposes. The indictment includes forfeiture provisions that seek forfeiture to the United States of any proceeds and property involved in, or derived from, the defendants’ unlawful conduct.
If the defendants are convicted on the crimes charged in the indictment, they face the following maximum statutory penalties:
Count 1, conspiracy – 30 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine;
Counts 2-11, mail fraud – 30 years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine;
Counts 12-21, aggravated identity theft – a mandatory two-years of imprisonment that must be served consecutive to any other sentence imposed on other counts and a $250,000 fine;
Counts 22-27, money laundering – ten years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine or twice the amount of the property involved in the crime; and
Count 28, conspiracy to commit money laundering – ten years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine or twice the amount of the property involved in the crime.
The Albuquerque offices of the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation, which resulted in the charges in the indictment, and are leading the continuing investigation. The Complex Assets Unit and the Albuquerque office of the USMS, the Criminal Investigations Division of the VA Office of Inspector General, and the Dallas Field Division of the SSA Office of Inspector General are assisting in the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeremy Peña and Brandon L. Fyffe are prosecuting the case.
Ayudando clients or family members of Ayudando clients who need to speak with someone about their accounts or expenses should call Ayudando, which is now being operated by the U.S. Marshals Service, at 505-332-4357.
Starting tomorrow, information about the federal investigation into Ayudando, including the indictment and the federal court order, will be available at www.justice.gov/usao-nm/ayudando-guardians. Also starting tomorrow, Ayudando clients can direct their comments or concerns to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at USANM.Ayudando@usdoj.gov(link sends e-mail) or 505-346-6902.
Charges in indictment are merely allegations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Report by Children's Advocacy Institute on how states take foster kids money and leave them with nothing when they age out.
"The fraudulent use of a child’s Social Security benefits by a representative payee is of great concern. Usually a representative payee lives with the child and has firsthand knowledge of the long and short term needs of the child. However, with governments acting as representative payees for foster children, Social Security benefits are frequently dumped into an account and billed for services by someone who often has never even met the child let alone has intimate knowledge of the best interest needs of the child."
Mitt, my love, do you have any idea what would happen, fiscally that is?
Just about the only mothers collecting assistance are caring for a disabled child which means you are tapping into Social Supplemental Income (SSI). There is a cap on life time benefits on a state level. It is 5 years but Michigan is in the process of making it 2 years.
If you cut these mothers off the SSI program, you will have a major surge of children being placed in child welfare. And right now, not mentioning the level of fraud, waste and abuse in child welfare, you have a system in which the likelihood of your child will end up raped, drugged and tortured is significant.
My precious, do you even know how much the 2013 budget is for the Administration for Children and Families? It is at $34.1 billion and that does not include Medicaid Targeted Case Management funding.
Now, let's do some basic math. Cut off SSI which stands at about $700 a month and put a child in a child welfare system, which can be reasonably estimated at 4 times that amount, $2800. Also keep in mind that the influx of children entering the system will cause for increase of staffing, services, programs and antitrust contracts riddled with fraud, waste and abuse.
With all said, this takes the budget to put mothers back to work to about $156 billion. Mind you, if you incorporate future costs such as the poor track record of children exiting the system who will more than likely end up back in the same system, you are looking serious problem.
Do you know anything about childhood disabilities?
WASHINGTON -- Poor women who stay at home to raise their children should be given federal assistance for child care so that they can enter the job market and "have the dignity of work," Mitt Romney said in January, undercutting the sense of extreme umbrage he showed when Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen quipped last week that Ann Romney had not "worked a day in her life."
The remark, made to a Manchester, N.H., audience, was unearthed by MSNBC's "Up w/Chris Hayes," and aired during the 8 a.m. hour of his show Sunday.
Ann Romney and her husband's campaign fired back hard at Rosen following her remark. "I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work," Romney said on Twitter.
On Sunday, Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg told The Huffington Post in an email, "Moving welfare recipients into work was one of the basic principles of the bipartisan welfare reform legislation that President Clinton signed into law. The sad fact is that under President Obama the poverty rate among women rose to 14.5 percent in 2011, the highest rate in 17 years. The Obama administration's economic policies have been devastating to women and families."
Mitt Romney, however, judging by his January remark, views stay-at-home moms who are supported by federal assistance much differently than those backed by hundreds of millions in private equity income. Poor women, he said, shouldn't be given a choice, but instead should be required to work outside the home to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits. "[E]ven if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work," Romney said of moms on TANF.
Recalling his effort as governor to increase the amount of time women on welfare in Massachusetts were required to work, Romney noted that some had considered his proposal "heartless," but he argued that the women would be better off having "the dignity of work" -- a suggestion Ann Romney would likely take issue with.
"I wanted to increase the work requirement," said Romney. "I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, 'Well that's heartless.' And I said, 'No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.'"
Regardless of its level of dignity, for Ann Romney, her work raising her children would not have fulfilled her work requirement had she been on TANF benefits. As HuffPost reported Thursday:
As far as Uncle Sam is concerned, if you're poor, deciding to stay at home and rear your children is not an option. Thanks to welfare reform, recipients of federal benefits must prove to a caseworker that they have performed, over the course of a week, a certain number of hours of "work activity." That number changes from state to state, and each state has discretion as to how narrowly work is defined, but federal law lists 12 broad categories that are covered.
Raising children is not among them.
According to a 2006 Congressional Research Service report, the dozen activities that fulfill the work requirement are:
(1) unsubsidized employment
(2) subsidized private sector employment
(3) subsidized public sector employment
(4) work experience
(5) on-the-job training
(6) job search and job readiness assistance
(7) community services programs
(8) vocational educational training
(9) job skills training directly related to employment
(10) education directly related to employment (for those without a high school degree or equivalent)
(11) satisfactory attendance at a secondary school
(12) provision of child care to a participant of a community service program
The only child-care related activity on the list is the last one, which would allow someone to care for someone else's child if that person were off volunteering. But it does not apply to married couples in some states. Connecticut, for instance, specifically prevents counting as "work" an instance in which one parent watches a child while the other parent volunteers.
The federal government does at least implicitly acknowledge the value of child care, though not for married couples. According to a 2012 Urban Institute study, a single mother is required to work 30 hours a week, but the requirement drops to 20 hours if she has a child under 6. A married woman, such as Romney, would not be entitled to such a reduction in the requirement. If a married couple receives federally funded child care, the work requirement increases by 20 hours, from 35 hours to 55 hours between the two of them, another implicit acknowledgment of the value of stay-at-home work.
Romney's January view echoes a remark he made in 1994 during his failed Senate campaign. "This is a different world than it was in the 1960s when I was growing up, when you used to have Mom at home and Dad at work," Romney said, as shown in a video posted by BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski. "Now Mom and Dad both have to work whether they want to or not, and usually one of them has two jobs."
This article has been updated to reflect comment from the Romney campaign.
The issue at hand is dealing with child welfare. As it stands, children who are impoverished qualify under Title IV-A means testing to apply for Social Supplemental Income payments, including eligibility of Medicaid. Children who have been under the auspices of the state, more readily recognized as foster care, and have been returned to the legal custody and guardianship of the original parent, reunification, generally, automatically qualify for SSI as having been judicially assessed as special needs through the state court. This state court qualification also determines the funding formulas pertaining to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), Title IV-E and Targeted Case Management of Medicaid.
Due to the aforementioned eligibility determinations, a child's medical and psychological records when in foster care become hermetically sealed and are not subject to the purview of the original parent, even under a FOIA.
Simply put, an original parent may not access the child's medical and psychological records who has been under the auspices of the state, creating an obstacle for the Social Security Administrative Law Judges to make a determination of eligibility for SSI benefits.
Under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247), in order to receive a Federal grant, States must preserve the confidentiality of all child abuse and neglect reports and records to protect the privacy rights of the child and of the child's parents or guardians except in certain limited circumstances. All jurisdictions have confidentiality provisions to protect abuse and neglect records from public scrutiny. Confidentiality provisions mandate that such records are confidential, and many include specific mechanisms for protecting them form public view.
Pursuant to P.L. 93-247, these certain limited circumstances only release records in instances of individual state child fatality review. For this matter, a claimant is not entitle to medical records.
In the case of Tampico v. EOUSA, No. 04-2285, slip op. at 8 (D.D.C. Apr 29, 2005), the court clarified the position that is applied to all child protection cases, as it is a federally funded law enforcement action by qualifying certain records containing identifying information pertaining to children involved in criminal proceedings by statute to the Freedom of Information Act under Exemption 3.
Congress exempted nine categories of documents from the broad disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. Exemption 3 applies to documents that are specifically exempted from disclosure by another statute. 3 U.S.C.S. Sec 552(b)(3). Exemption 6 protects personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. 5U.S.C.S. Sec. 552(b)(6). Exemption 7(C) excludes records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production privacy. 5 U.S.C.S. Sec 552(b)(7)(C).
Then, under the Federal Victims Protection and Rights Act (3) the term "child abuse" means the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitating, or negligent treatment of a child (18 U.S.C. Sec 3509). As seen in the language of the statute, the terms "child abuse" and "child neglect" are fungible, one in the same. A child can and is placed into foster care to access medical care and resources when an original parent cannot afford health insurance or is denied coverage. This is standard procedure for the States and have no qualms in generating a list of administrative policies for each state.
Again, an original parent may not access the former foster child's medical and/or psychological records when presenting a case to an Administrative Law Judge for a Social Security determination of eligibility for SSI.
An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has subpoena powers pursuant to CFR 20 405.322. The Administrative Law Judge, upon his own initiative possesses the ability to issue subpoena for production of documents in the light of a claimant's release for request of information to previously mentioned medical and psychological authorities, including state regulatory agencies and keepers of the record, in a claimant's case have failed to respond and produce records.
Not only do ALJs significantly fail to exercise these subpoena powers, but the length of time it takes for a decision to be rendered for eligibility of SSI averages over one year, causing the child to economically and in some cases medically suffer, defaulting the grant of custody and guardianship of an original parent back to the state. Recidivism rates manifest when a child is placed back to the foster care system to access funding for services because of the delays of the ALJ, severely skewing national statistics of why children are in foster care and unnecessarily expending funding of foster care programs.
Another layer of time in determinations is placed upon the claimant's case when an appeal is sent to the Decision Appellate Board, further exasperating the wait in the form of another year.
The role of the ALJ in SSI cases of children and youth is to expedite the navigation of the child welfare system to provide desperately needed relief in the form of a determination of eligibility. California has recognized that the ALJ has neglected to recognize the duties to function in the best interests of the child and has adopted its own policy to provide for expedient determination of eligibility for SSI.
The ALJ presiding over child cases also has a responsibility to refer violations of law to an investigative entity, preferably the Department of Justice. This would be a basic start to stopping fraud in child welfare.
Interestingly enough, similar fraud schemes or, to properly assign blame, lack of administrative controls, goes on in foster care.
Dealing with Social Supplemental Income (SSI), a different funding stream than Social Security, there is a multi-billion dollar reaping of the payments going on within the States' child welfare programs.
So, as long as there is the iron curtain in child welfare, maintained by the child abuse propaganda machines, there will never be any GAO reports as these are secrets of the States. The States, speaking upon its privatized contractual arms, reap what they sow.
The more the propaganda, the more the fraud.
For your viewing pleasure, once again, I present Part One of "Anatomy of Child Welfare Fraud: Targeted Case Management."
Hundreds of federal employees may have improperly reaped millions in Social Security disability benefits, according to a government watchdog that caught workers at several major agencies pocketing fraudulent payments.
The Government Accountability Office issued a report that showed at least 1,500 federal employees may have wrongly received benefits. The group's investigation, which focused on two Social Security programs for people who have limited incomes due to disabilities, found several specific cases in which beneficiaries were earning well above the income cap while still receiving benefits. In one case, a Transportation Security Administration screener was overpaid $108,000, according to the report...more
