Massachusetts Children's Trust Slush Fund Busted - Happy Foster Care Propaganda Month

It seems Massachusetts has been busted for another child welfare fraud scheme.

This time they found the Social Security Survivor Benefits that are intercepted by the State.

The investigators do not know where the money goes.

I know where the money goes.

https://childrenstrustma.org/

All States have children's trust funds.

They are not incorporated or registered as a business in the U.S. because they are UCCs.

It started with the Michigan Children's Trust which set up shop in Kansas under here:

https://ctfalliance.org/

Then, the money is doled out to other foreign child welfare NGOs===> who then funnel the money to asset management organizations ====>who then invest in U.S. real estate that was subject to other fraud schemes of fake property tax and mortgage foreclosures ====> who then take out fake mortgages through fake LLCs ===>who then get a land bank to fake file quiet titles =====> who then let other fake LLCs to take out federal mortgage loans =====> who then get the land bank to file another quiet title ===> who then get the courts to wipe out the loans ====> then do it over again ====> while bundling the debt to leverage overseas in some artsy fartsy pipeline, drug, weapons project, and more human subject medical research on foster kids ====> by funding predictive modeling crap ====> to hustle their stupid Social Impact Bonds ====> that make people even more poorer ====> to be able to get CPS to snatch more kids to be put into foster care.

For every child that comes in undocumented gets put into a state system, termination of parental rights, and placed under the custody of a private state contractor who is secure foreign corporate parental rights.

Investigates: Foster Children’s Money

Millions of dollars taken from children in Massachusetts. Investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan found some call a secret system. Who is getting their money, and why? 7 Investigates.

Landon’s life was sad as any little life could be. When he was a baby he was put in foster care with his Auntie Kristen. Then when he was two years old he lost his single mother to a drug overdose.

“It breaks my heart,” Kristen told 7 News.

Then Kristen learned something else that would change their lives: Because Landon was in foster care, he’d also lose his survivor benefits: Thousands of dollars he was entitled to because his mom worked and paid into Social Security.

“It makes me so angry,” Kristen said.

The family had hoped to save the money for Landon’s future, but who was actually taking those thousands? The State of Massachusetts.

“And who would get that money,” Investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan asked.

“They would,” Kristen replied.

“Not your nephew,” Hank asked.

“No,” Kristen said.

Foster kids, the ones who’ve lost their parents, and lost their homes, and are sometimes sent to live with strangers. We found the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families is taking millions of dollars from them.

“It just baffles my mind,” Kristen said.

But DCF officials confirmed it. No one would go on camera, but they told us as legal guardians of the foster kids, they can legally take 90 percent of their Social Security Survivor Benefits to reimburse the Commonwealth’s general fund for their care.

That’s even though Mass law requires the state to pay for the care of foster kids. And does not require kids to pay the state back.

Attorneys fighting for change say taking the money hurts those unfortunate kids even more.

“Their sole reason for existing is to serve and protect abused and neglected children is instead using those children as a source of revenue to go after their money and take it from them. And in my mind it’s theft,” Attorney Daniel Hatcher told 7 News.

How much is the state taking from these foster kids? We found in the last three years alone DCF kept 5.6 million. And every time the state takes guardianship of a new child the state can take their benefits, too.

It was only when Kristen was finally named Landon’s legal guardian, two years after his mom died, the benefits started going to him. Now, finally, future checks will go into his savings account.

“There’s got to be another way, not taking from these children as the answer. It’s not the answer,” Kristen said.

Though other states do this too, Maryland recently limited the amount of benefits a child can lose. And in Congress, there’s now a bill in the works requiring all the money be held for the children until they’re adults.

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Does DOJ Know About The Multi-Million Dollar Bank Fraud Schemes In Child Welfare?

The Multi-Million dollar question in bank fraud schemes is whether the DOJ knows that using Social Security Numbers of children in foster care and adoption is a common, legal practice?

Yes, it goes like this:

Co-Conspirator Sentenced in Multi-Million Bank Fraud Scheme

HOUSTON – A Houston-area man has been ordered to federal prison for perpetrating a scheme that caused a loss of more than $4 million to several local banks, announced U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick. Gregory Roberson, 65, of Missouri City, pleaded guilty June 14, 2016.

Today, U.S. District Judge Gray Miller, who accepted the guilty plea, handed Roberson a 24-month sentence and ordered him to pay $3,081,942.14. The ringleader of the scheme, Andre Chenier, 44, of Houston, had previously been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $4.5 million in restitution. Both will also serve three years of supervised release following completion of their sentences. 

From 2004 to 2012, Chenier obtained multi-million dollar commercial loans from several Houston-area banks by submitting false and fraudulent documents, including Bank of Texas and Third Coast Bank. The loan applications included falsified financial statements and fake income tax returns and were obtained using the Social Security numbers of identity theft victims. Chenier ultimately defaulted on both of these loans and others, resulting in a loss of $4,581,942. Chenier represented to banks that he owned various technology companies, when in fact the companies were fictitious and Chenier was merely living off loan proceeds.     

Roberson assisted Chenier in the scheme by preparing falsified income tax forms and other documents to help Chenier obtain millions in commercial loans.

He was permitted to remain on bond pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The FBI, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General and IRS – Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Belinda Beek is prosecuting the case.V

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Day 59.1 Toto Pulls Back the Iron Curtain

Behind the Iron Curtain of Child Welfare Fraud

Learn more: BEVERLY TRAN: Behind the Iron Curtain of Child Welfare Fraud http://beverlytran.blogspot.com/2009/12/behind-iron-curtain-of-child-welfare.html#ixzz51dNyesfW
Stop Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare 

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Day 58.7. “Russian Retreat” Really? Or Ellis Island For Russians?

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Kentucky Works With Honduras To Capture Attorney In $550 Million Social Security Scam

If you think this is bad, you should see how the child welfare organizations operate in the same Social Supplemental Income claims for children, children who never see a dime.

Another successful conjugal collaborative.

Fugitive Kentucky lawyer Eric C. Conn captured in Honduras

Disgraced lawyer Eric Conn has been caught six months after fleeing Kentucky to avoid prison in the largest Social Security disability fraud in the nation’s history, according to a story posted on a news site in Honduras.

The story in El Heraldo said Conn was arrested by the country’s Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation, or ATIC.

The story did not say when Conn was arrested, but included photos of Conn with masked ATIC agents standing over him.

The story said police with a SWAT unit arrested Conn as he was leaving a restaurant in La Ceiba, a city of about 200,000 on the northern coast of the Central American nation.

The story said Conn is to be flown back to the U.S. Tuesday.

A spokesman for the FBI in Kentucky said he could not comment on the article.

Lexington attorney Scott White, who represented Conn before he fled, said he had not been given any official information about Conn being captured, but had heard rumors about it since the weekend.

It does appear Conn was taken into custody, White said. But given the shaky security situation and the presence of gangs in Honduras, “who knows” if Conn was legally seized, White said.

But if Conn was lawfully arrested and is legally returned to the U.S., that would come as no surprise, White said.

“The FBI usually gets their man,” White said.

The arrest ends an escape saga that had gotten nationwide attention.

Conn once had one of the nation’s largest practices representing people seeking federal disability benefits, but he pleaded guilty in March to stealing from the government and to bribing a Social Security judge.

Officials said the fraud was the biggest in the history of the Social Security program, obligating the government to pay more than $550 million in benefits if the investigation hadn’t intervened.

Conn admitted putting false evidence of clients’ disabilities in their claims, paying doctors to sign forms with little scrutiny, and giving more than $600,000 cash to the judge, David B. Daugherty.

Daugherty pleaded guilty in the case, and a psychologist from Pikeville, Bradley Adkins, was convicted of signing forms for that included false information.

Another former Social Security judge, Charlie Paul Andrus, pleaded guilty to being part of the scheme to discredit an agency employee who tried to expose the wrongdoing.

Conn was scheduled to be sentenced in July. He was on home detention while awaiting sentencing, but he fled June 2.

The FBI later released images showing that he was in New Mexico a few days after he fled.

A federal grand jury charged that a former employee of Conn’s, Curtis Lee Wyatt, helped Conn escape.

Wyatt allegedly opened a bank account to use in sending money out of the country for Conn, bought a truck for Conn to use in fleeing, and crossed the border into Mexico to see what kind of security was in place.

Conn is charged in that case with conspiracy and escape.

Wyatt has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in February.

U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced Conn in absentia to 12 years in prison. Conn could face a life sentence on more than a dozen charges that prosecutors left in place from his original case after he fled.

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CIVITAS Solutions: Human Trafficking Listed On NYSE

I have stated over and over again that children are still chattel, with attachment to trust funds of Social Security and land.

Profits from foster care and adoption are so good, CIVITAS Solutions, Inc. has gone public, on the New York Stock Exchange, that is.

This is privatization, where there are no opportunity for FOIA or civil rights, as it is a private corporation with its own belief system.

A private corporation does not have to honor Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, which means it engages in Medicaid fraud.

Second quarter net revenue of $362.4 million was a 4.8% increase over the same quarter last year.

Civitas Solutions Annual Report 1-20-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

These are the faces that are trafficking tiny humans by profiting from Medicaid and no one has a problem with this because they fund political campaigns.

Why am I the only person who sees a problem with private corporations becoming the legal guardians of children who have been removed from the home by CPS to be placed into foster care and adopted out for being poor, by using Medicaid funds, intended for these children and the families, as alternative investment opportunities on Wall Street?

Once a child is under the legal aegis of a private corporation, the private corporation has access and control of all Social Security Trust Accounts of that child, and can use the child as chattel to leverage mortgages.

I guess privatized human trafficking is now in competition with the NGOs of the tax exempt God.

National Mentor Holdings has an IPO prepared by Vestar Capital Partners for $1 billion.

Barclays Capital Inc., BofA Merrill Lynch and UBS Securities LLC are serving as representatives of the underwriters and joint book-running managers for the offering. Raymond James & Associates, Inc., SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., BMO Capital Markets Corp. and Avondale Partners, LLC are acting as co-managers.

Not one penny will go back into the Social Security Trust Fund, and, more than likely, the money will be used for national and international real estate ventures and investment ventures to profit from the spoils of war, like trafficking more children through a global expansion of its "mentoring" programs, and its intellectual property ownership of humans.

The banks now own humans and they started with the child.

Board Members Of Troubled Foster-Care Company Have Little To Say About Abuses

A recent BuzzFeed News investigation into the nation’s largest for-profit foster care company revealed deaths, sex abuse, and serious lapses in the training and oversight of foster parents.

The investigation into National Mentor Holdings found instances of long-term sex abuse in Maryland by Mentor foster fathers, widespread problems with Mentor documented by the state of Texas, and at least six deaths of children in the custody of Mentor since 2005.

Mentor trades on the New York Stock Exchange as Civitas Solutions Inc., which reported $1.2 billion in revenue last year. Companies can often seem faceless, but like all public companies, Civitas is governed by a board of directors.

BuzzFeed News decided to find out whether members of the board knew about the problems exposed by the recent investigation, and if so, ask what they planned to do about it.

For some children, it’s a question of life and death.

Alexandria Hill

Sherill Small, a Mentor foster parent in Texas, murdered 2-year-old Alexandria Hill in 2013, smashing in her skull. Mentor had placed the little girl with Small despite warning signs that she wasn’t fit to be a foster parent.

From September through December 2012, Small had taken in five foster children, but every one of them had been removed as “failed placements.” Small, according to an internal Mentor document obtained by BuzzFeed News, “reported feeling stressed out, and will express that she is unable to care for the children in the home.” The Mentor document also warns that personnel from the Texas state Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) program “felt the children should not be in the home at that time.” Less than a month after that report, Mentor placed little Alexandria with Small, the foster mother who would become her murderer.

Aram Roston / BuzzFeed News

In Maryland, Stephen Merritt, one of several Mentor foster parents at a compound called Last Chance Farm, pleaded guilty in 2011 to sexually abusing multiple boys in his care. Another foster father on same compound, Tracy Grant Bayne, also admitted to abusing a boy. Again, warning signs weren’t heeded. As far back as 2004, a boy had complained to his Mentor caseworker that he was being abused. The caseworker sent him back to Merritt. Police investigated allegations of abuse twice, but didn’t find enough to press charges.

A psychotherapist wrote Mentor in 2010, warning of “huge red flags” in Merritt’s interaction with a child. But it would be another year before police finally arrested Merritt and stopped the abuse.

An analysis of Texas data by BuzzFeed News found that Mentor ranked last among large foster placement providers in the state, based on the number of severe violations per home. Texas regulators found more than 100 serious problems in Mentor foster homes in the last two years, including, but not limited to, instances of children being slapped, hit with belts, and struck.

In Georgia, where the state grades child-placing agencies, Mentor’s fared poorly as well. Of the six branches Mentor runs in Georgia, not one scored an average grade above the median in the 10 most recent quarters.

State and local governments have long worked with nonprofits and religious groups to help find good homes for children whose parents can’t care for them. But over the past several decades, for-profit companies have started winning contracts to manage foster care placements. Former Mentor employees said that the pressure to make profits sometimes led to Mentor cutting corners on protecting the children — a charge Mentor strongly disputed in BuzzFeed News' original story. Mentor also said it has helped thousands of children, and pointed to Maryland, where state regulators recently gave the company high marks.

In 2006, National Mentor Holdings was bought for $242 million in cash by Vestar Capital Partners, a giant hedge fund based in New York City. The company went public last year under the name Civitas, but Vestar still owns about two-thirds of the stock. Three Vestar employees sit on Civitas’ board: Chris Durbin, James Elrod Jr., and Kevin Mundt.

Civitas Solutions / Via civitas-solutions.com

When BuzzFeed News called Vestar to ask to interview its employees after the investigation was published, a spokesperson said, “Vestar declined to comment.”

These Board Members are beholden to no one, not one elected official, not one U.S. citizen, not one parent and can never, ever, be criminally prosecuted for Medicaid fraud, civil rights violations, or your basic human trafficking.

That is why I have always been a SOX gal.

Before the story ran, the spokesperson had provided this statement: “Vestar shares MENTOR Network’s belief that one tragedy within any foster care program is one too many. Mentor’s investments over the past decade to strengthen service quality while expanding programming have been fully supported by Vestar. We are proud to be associated with an organization that has enhanced the lives of tens of thousands of children and adolescents and adults with disabilities.”

US Department of Energy, Civitas Solutions / Via civitas-solutions.com

Federico Peña, Pamela Lenehan, Guy Sansone, and Greg Torres

Federico Peña isn’t a Civitas board member but he’s a “senior advisor” to Vestar. He’s also a powerful political figure, a former national co-chair of the Obama presidential campaign and a secretary of transportation and a secretary of energy under President Bill Clinton. Reached after the story ran, and told about the problems at Mentor, he said he had not read the BuzzFeed News story. “"I’m not involved in that matter but thank you for the call and I have to go."

Pamela Lenehan, who was elected to the Civitas board in 2008, did not answer numerous phone calls from BuzzFeed News.

Guy Sansone, a healthcare consultant, did not respond to a phone call and email placed by BuzzFeed News.

Greg Torres – former president and CEO of Mentor from 1996-2004 – did not respond to a phone call and email placed by BuzzFeed News.

BuzzFeed News did not reach Patrick M. Gray, an accountant and former audit partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

I will be revisiting the role of PricewaterhouseCoopers and other governmental fraud schemes in future posts.

Civitas Solutions / Via civitas-solutions.com

Patrick M. Gray, Edward Murphy and Bruce Nardella.

Edward Murphy and Bruce Nardella currently work at Mentor. After BuzzFeed News had started contacting the other board members and before calling Murphy and Nardella, a Mentor spokesperson sent a statement on behalf of the entire board:

“Service quality and outcomes across The MENTOR Network are of paramount importance to the entire Board. We were aware of matters raised in your story, and especially the tragedies in Maryland and Texas. We are also aware of how profoundly the organization has been impacted by these tragedies, as well as the comprehensive actions management has taken in an effort to ensure the safety and well-being of the children and adolescents served in MENTOR’s programs.

“As a Board, we appreciate the challenges associated with foster care, and understand that while no provider will ever achieve perfection, each, including MENTOR, has a responsibility to strive for it in partnership with public agencies. We recognize that the good work of the MENTOR team has enhanced the lives of tens of thousands of children at-risk and adults with disabilities. However, we have also insisted that the organization learn from each mistake in order to enhance its programs and protect those it is privileged to support.”

March 4, 2015, at 7:12 p.m.

An earlier version of this story contained remarks attributed to Civitas Solutions board member Patrick M. Gray. In fact, BuzzFeed News did not speak to that Patrick M. Gray but to a different person with the same name who claimed to be a Civitas board member.

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Congress Ignores Social Security Fraud In Child Welfare: Representative Payee Program

Guess what the House Ways and Means Subcommittees on Social Security and Oversight did not discuss in its joint hearings.

Oh, come on, you already know.

Foster care and adoption!

That is correct, there is fraud in the Social Supplemental Income programs in child welfare.

These payments do not go the the youth in foster care and adoption, they go to tax exempt corporations.

Think about that.

CONGRESS FOCUSES ON SSA’S REPRESENTATIVE PAYEE PROGRAM 

SSA’s representative payee program, which provides financial management for Social Security beneficiaries who are incapable of handling their payments, requires close monitoring and oversight, according to Congressional leaders.

Congress is particularly concerned with the health and well-being of Social Security beneficiaries in need of payees to manage their benefits.

The House Ways and Means Subcommittees on Social Security and Oversight recently held two joint hearings on the payee program, discussing program issues with SSA, the OIG, and special-interest groups.

The hearings reviewed how SSA determines if a beneficiary needs a payee, and how SSA selects payees and monitors payee performance. Acting Inspector General Gale Stallworth Stone testified at both hearings in February and March.

At the March hearing, Stone noted that about 6 million payees serve 8 million Social Security beneficiaries.

While the vast majority of those payees properly manage beneficiary funds, the threat of payee misuse remains, she said. “SSA has many service responsibilities, but it must prioritize careful administration and monitoring of the payee program,” Stone said.

FLORIDA PAYEE MISUSED $1 MILLION IN BENEFITS
Just last week, a judge sentenced a Florida woman to 33 months in prison for misusing more than $1 million in Social Security and Medicaid benefits intended for residents of assisted-living facilities the woman operated.

 According to reports, the woman opened a facility near Tampa, Florida in 2008 for the elderly and mentally ill.

Many of the facility’s residents received Social Security and Medicaid, so the woman served as their payee and pledged to receive and manage the government benefits on her residents’ behalf.

However, a Florida health care agency closed the facility in 2011 after the agency determined the woman did not provide the residents a safe and sanitary living environment.

The agency found the facility’s residents were confused and hungry, while bedbugs and roaches infested the residence.

The woman settled with the State of Florida in October 2011 and agreed to not own or operate an assisted-living facility for five years.

 NEW FACILITY NAME, SAME POOR CONDITIONS
However, not long after the woman settled with the state, she reportedly changed the facility’s name and applied for a license to operate using another person’s identity.

She reopened, and she again housed beneficiaries who were mostly mentally ill adults.

Unfortunately, she again did not provide the residents a safe and healthy living situation.

By April 2013, the State of Florida shut down the woman’s operation a second time; the state found residents did not have necessary food and medication, the facility did not have a heating/cooling system, and rodents and trash filled the residence.

The Health and Human Services OIG contacted us in 2015 to assist in an investigation of the woman.

The investigation determined that, during her time operating the facilities, she misused government benefits intended for the care and housing of her residents.

She reportedly used the funds to make cash withdrawals and pay credit card bills, car payments, and rent.

Because of the investigation, she pled guilty in November 2016 before her recent sentencing.

PAYEE FRAUD A PRIORITY ISSUE
As the Acting Inspector General told Congress, we make every effort to seek prosecution against payees who misuse government funds and neglect their responsibilities to serve beneficiaries in need.

Last year, our investigative efforts led to 180 convictions related to payee fraud and about $10 million in monetary accomplishments, including restitution and SSA recoveries.

Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Vern Buchanan, a Florida Congressman, emphasized the critical need to monitor payees and to identify and reduce payee fraud.

 “Vulnerable seniors who can no longer manage their own benefits should not become victims of fraud,” Buchanan said before the March hearing.

“We need to protect our loved ones.” If you suspect a representative payee of fraud or beneficiary abuse, contact the OIG at https://oig.ssa.gov/report.

Archived link.

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Day 74 - Where is Eric Braverman? Part 1

Gaddafi's Gold, Hillary's FoPo and DoPo 1 2 Punch

FoPo is short for Foreign Policy, DoPo is short for Domestic Policy

No NSA Disruption Version - Censorship Just Makes Things More Popular

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Privatization Always Begins In Child Welfare Policies

The genisus of all policy development is found within child welfare.

Privatization began in child welfare, in Michigan, which is more than just dealing with social norms in raising children.

Privatization quickly evolves to expand into the realms of property ownership, criminal & civil justice, voting rights and education as these are funded through the Social Security Trust fund, and these people want to get their hands on it, badly.

This report details just how badly these actors are creating layers, upon layers of administrations and fees through the privatization of governmental services, to generate profit off "The Poors".

I only wish the report addressed the contraints in oversight and the lack of regulation.

If the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is going to continue to advance criminal justice reform, it is going to have to address child welfare and privatization.

How Privatization Increases Inequality Report September 2016 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr. for the Hearing on the “Federal Government on Autopilot: Mandatory Spending and the Entitlement Crisis”

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Once again, in its 7^th hearing to date, this Task Force is considering old wine in new bottles.

Unfortunately, today’s hearing is just the latest in a decades-old line of attack by conservatives on America’s longstanding commitments to aid the elderly and the poor. 

As we consider the arguments made today, we should keep a few points in mind.

To begin with, efforts to curb “mandatory spending” and stopping the so-called “entitlement crisis” are really intended to slash programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

These programs comprise the great majority of mandatory spending in the federal budget.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Medicare and Medicaid alone made up 40 percent of all mandatory spending in fiscal year 2015.

And, Social Security, Medicare, and the federal share of Medicaid – the largest mandatory spending programs – comprised 50.6% of all federal spending.

The budget deficit and the future solvency of the trusts that fund Social Security and Medicare are important issues that merit discussion.

But instead of putting forth a serious proposal that would help raise revenue, the Majority proposes to funnel these and other important social safety net programs through the annual appropriations process, a process that often becomes mired in partisan division.

And while the Majority may protest that they would leave Social Security and Medicare alone, keep in mind that the other important social safety net programs such as Food Stamps (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) only account for approximately 10 percent of mandatory spending.

If the Majority’s plan for reducing the federal deficit relies on cuts alone, you cannot do so simply by cutting funding for these other important social safety net programs through the appropriations process. 

Subjecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid recipients to an annual appropriations process threatens to harm the basic economic well-being of seniors and working people in need.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, without any government income assistance, either from safety net programs or programs like Social Security, the Nation’s poverty rate would have been 27% in 2014, almost double the recorded rate of 15%.

Imagine the harm it would do to the most vulnerable members of our society if the funding for these programs were held hostage to yearly budget negotiations or benefits were withheld because of a government shutdown.

Unfortunately, given the Majority’s track record, this scenario is entirely possible, if not likely.

Finally, Mandatory spending provisions are not an historical accident whereby Congress gave away too much power to the Executive.  Rather, they reflect Congress’ commitment to the American people to care for the elderly after a lifetime of hard work and to aid the working poor.

Mandatory spending for programs like Social Security and Medicare is based on the need to ensure stability in these and other vital programs so that the most vulnerable in our society can be assured of minimum income levels to meet their basic human needs.

Proposing to subject these and other programs to the annual appropriations process is not a serious proposal. 

It is merely another attempt to denigrate the working poor and the elderly as undeserving “takers,” something with which I will not abide. 

Nevertheless, I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and I thank them for their participation.

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Michigan Gives More Power to Steal from Foster Kids

So many questions.  So little time left in this Legislative session.

Here you have an honorable Michigan House Bill which, I guess, is an attempt to address foster children being victims of identity theft.

Great, but the real issue is:

Caseworkers guarding SS#'s of foster children

Q:   "Who has access to foster children's Social Security Numbers?"

A:   Caseworkers.

Allow me to clear the air before further examination.

This Bill gives the power and authority to Caseworkers to do annual credit checks on a child's credit history.

Mind you, the Bill has no referral mechanism to the Office of Attorney General to investigate how the foster child's information was breached nor is there any mandate to prosecute.

No training requirements specified for the caseworkers or child placing agencies have been even slightly mentioned.

Identity theft is a federal crime.  Considering the fact that foster care is a federally funded program, one would think there would be some form of collaboration with federal authorities to, at least, intervene and assist in the prosecution, and in certain circumstances, recovery.

There is not even a whisper about generating an exclusionary database to revoke licenses, sanctions, prosecution or recovery, for individuals who engage in fraud against these foster youth.

So now, within this Bill, there will be annual credit reports, which will be billed to some unidentified funding source, which more than likely be Medicaid, to generate stock piles of more documentation to be lost in the paperwork shuffle of a foster care case, with multiple individuals having undocumented access to the files,

There is no mention of Michigan Children's Institute and its role as the sole, legal guardian for more than 3,000 in its care.

So why is it that there was the need to even introduce a Bill such as this?  Is foster care identity theft that rampant where there is such a need for intervention?

If child welfare was not such a secret operation, there could be much more collaboration and reduction in numbers of children who are in state care.

Foster care Social Security Numbers can be used in more ways than with credit to commit fraud.

Watch this video to find out Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare and why Michigan is letting the  "fox guard the hen house":

Michigan Foster Child Credit Check

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Conyers, Sanders Lead Call For Expanding Social Security

              

WASHINGTON, July 12 –Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today joined with more than 70 members of Congress in calling on President Obama to expand Social Security.

The letter to the president came on the eve of a historic conference on aging, convened once every 10 years to get the entire country talking about issues relating to older Americans.

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“A clear majority of Americans support expanding Social Security,” wrote Conyers, Sanders and other lawmakers.  “As employers continue moving from a defined benefit model to a defined contribution model of retirement savings, it is critical that we fight to protect and expand Social Security – the only guaranteed source of income in retirement.”

“The aging conference that opens tomorrow,” wrote the lawmakers, “presents an excellent opportunity to open a discussion on expanding Social Security benefits.”

The conference, which is being hosted by the White House, runs all day tomorrow and includes discussions about healthy aging, long-term services, elder security and retirement security.

Joining Rep. Conyers and Sen. Sanders, the letter to the president was signed by 68 House members and Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Letter of Reps. John Conyers and Bernie Sanders to President to Expand Social Security

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