NEW YORK — Federal authorities charged a dozen people Tuesday with fraudulently collecting more than $10 million in government child-care payments in San Diego County when the operators had few or even no children attending their facilities.
The charges, jointly announced in San Diego by the Justice Department and the criminal investigations division of the Internal Revenue Service, are the latest effort by the Trump administration to investigate and charge alleged cases of fraud and waste in government programs.
The 12 defendants said they were operating licensed, at-home child-care facilities in the San Diego area, submitting attendance records and documenting when each child attended and for what times, in order to collect payments from government child-care subsidy programs. However, federal prosecutors allege these at-home facilities rarely, if ever, had children. Defendants…
Insurance fraud involves making false or exaggerated claims to an insurance provider.
- Hard Fraud: Someone deliberately causes a loss (e.g., setting fire to a warehouse or staging a car accident) specifically to collect a payout.
- Soft Fraud: More common and often viewed as “victimless” by the perpetrator. It involves exaggerating a legitimate claim, such as overstating the value of stolen items in a home burglary to cover the deductible.