[House Hearing, 119 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
UNIVERSAL BASIC FRAUD: VULNERABILITIES
IN MEDICAID WAIVER PROGRAMS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
TASK FORCE ON DEFENDING CONSTITUTIONAL
RIGHTS AND EXPOSING INSTITUTIONAL ABUSES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND
GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 3, 2026
__________
Serial No. 119-64
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on: govinfo.gov, oversight.house.gov or docs.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
63-891 PDF WASHINGTON : 2026
=======================================================================
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
JAMES COMER, Kentucky, Chairman
Jim Jordan, Ohio Robert Garcia, California, Ranking
Mike Turner, Ohio Minority Member
Paul Gosar, Arizona Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Columbia
Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
Michael Cloud, Texas Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois
Gary Palmer, Alabama Ro Khanna, California
Clay Higgins, Louisiana Kweisi Mfume, Maryland
Pete Sessions, Texas Shontel Brown, Ohio
Andy Biggs, Arizona Melanie Stansbury, New Mexico
Nancy Mace, South Carolina Maxwell Frost, Florida
Pat Fallon, Texas Summer Lee, Pennsylvania
Byron Donalds, Florida Greg Casar, Texas
Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Jasmine Crockett, Texas
William Timmons, South Carolina Emily Randall, Washington
Tim Burchett, Tennessee Suhas Subramanyam, Virginia
Lauren Boebert, Colorado Yassamin Ansari, Arizona
Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Wesley Bell, Missouri
Nick Langworthy, New York Lateefah Simon, California
Eric Burlison, Missouri Dave Min, California
Elijah Crane, Arizona Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Brian Jack, Georgia Rashida Tlaib, Michigan
John McGuire, Virginia
Brandon Gill, Texas
Richard McCormick, Georgia
------
Mark Marin, Staff Director
James Rust, Deputy Staff Director
Ryan Giachetti, Chief Counsel
Jack Furla, Counsel
Rodney Rios, Counsel
Mallory Cogar, Director of Operations and Chief Clerk
Contact Number: 202-225-5074
Robert Edmonson, Minority Staff Director
Contact Number: 202-225-5051
------
Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing
Institutional Abuses
Brandon Gill, Texas, Chairman
Jim Jordan, Ohio Lateefah Simon, California,
Michael Cloud, Texas Ranking Member
Andy Biggs, Arizona Dave Min, California
Byron Donalds, Florida James Walkinshaw, Virginia
Brian Jack, Georgia Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
C O N T E N T S
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OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Brandon Gill, U.S. Representative, Chairman................. 1
Hon. Lateefah Simon, U.S. Representative, Ranking Member......... 3
WITNESSES
Mr. Luke Rosiak, Investigative Reporter, Daily Wire
Oral Statement................................................... 6
Hon. Keith Faber, Ohio Auditor of State
Oral Statement................................................... 9
Hon. Michael Dovilla, The Ohio House of Representatives, District
17
Oral Statement................................................... 11
Hon. Nickie Antonio (Minority Witness), The Ohio Senate, District
23
Oral Statement................................................... 13
Written opening statements and bios are available on the U.S.
House of Representatives Document Repository at:
docs.house.gov.
INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
* Article, AZ Family, ``Arizona Nurse Practitioner Sentenced'';
submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Article, Chicago Sun-Times, ``Biden Commutes Sentences of Two
Illinois Mega Fraudsters''; submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Article, Breitbart, ``DOJ Azerbaijan National Charged in $90
Million California Healthcare Fraud Scheme''; submitted by Rep.
Biggs.
* Article, Fox News, ``Five Arrested in Alleged $267 Million
Hospice Fraud Scheme That Exploited California's Medi-Cal
System''; submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Article, Fox News, ``Hospice Fraud Uses Stolen Identities For
Fake Patients''; submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Article, Fox News, ``Minnesota Medicaid Operator's Bankruptcy
to Riches Rise Crashes Into Fraud Probe''; submitted by Rep.
Biggs.
* Article, North Dakota Monitor, ``North Dakota Judge Blasts
Biden for Setting Fraudsters Free''; submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Article, Daily Signal, ``Ohio Rocked By Fraud. Now What?'';
submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Article, Fox News, ``RFK Jr. Announces Largest Autism Fraud
Bust in American History With $46.6M Medicaid Scheme
Indictment''; submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Article, Politico, ``White House Cuts $1.3 Billion in
Medicaid Payments to California''; submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Press Release, U.S. Department of Justice, ``California Man
Pleads Guilty to Orchestrating $270 Million Medication
Reimbursement Fraud Scheme''; submitted by Rep. Biggs.
* Report, Ohio Auditor of State, Keith Faber, ``Ohio Department
of Medicaid Cost of Concurrent Enrollment''; submitted by Rep.
Biggs.
* Report, Ohio Auditor of State, Keith Faber, ``Ohio Department
of Medicaid Electronic Visit Verification''; submitted by Rep.
Biggs.
* Report, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Majority Staff, ``The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and
Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota's Fraud Explosion''; submitted
by Rep. Comer.
* Article, Daily Wire, ``Daily Wire Investigation Reveals One
of the Biggest Government Waste Scandals Hiding in Plain
Sight''; submitted by Rep. Donalds.
* Article, Daily Wire, ``He Was Convicted for Defrauding The
Government. Now Medicaid Pays His Wife Millions''; submitted by
Rep. Donalds.
* Article, Daily Wire, ``Inside Ohio's Home Health Empire: 7
Buildings, 288 Medicaid Companies, $250 Million''; submitted by
Rep. Donalds.
* Article, Daily Wire, ``Refugees From Bhutan Billed Medicaid
Millions Now They Drink Champagne in Private Jets''; submitted
by Rep. Donalds.
* Article, Cleveland.com, ``Medicaid Fraud Scheme in Ohio
Pushed in Testimony at Senate Hearing''; submitted by Rep.
Gill.
* Transcript, Rep. Ansari statement on fraud, ``Oversight of
Fraud and Misuse of Federal Funds in Minnesota: Part II
Hearing'', House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform;
submitted by Rep. Gill.
* Article, Truthout, ``Trump Grants Clemency to Executive Who
Orchestrated $205M Medicare Fraud Scheme''; submitted by Rep.
Pressley.
* Article, NBC, ``Immigrants Contributed Trillions More in
Taxes Than They Received in Benefits: Study''; submitted by
Rep. Simon.
* Article, Cleveland.com, ``Ohio Republicans Are Rage-Baiting
Over Medicaid Fraud, But They've Run the Program Since 2011'';
submitted by Rep. Simon.
* Article, KFF, ``Trump's Health Fraud Focus At Odds With Past
Pardons''; submitted by Rep. Simon.
* Article, Washington Post, ``Trump's Pardons Wipe Out Payments
to Defrauded Victims''; submitted by Rep. Simon.
* Report, Protect Our Care, ``The Real Fraud Trump Pardoned'';
submitted by Rep. Simon.
* Statement from Ancor, ``Universal Basic Fraud:
Vulnerabilities in Medicaid Waiver Programs''; submitted by
Rep. Simon.
The documents listed above are available at: docs.house.gov.
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS
* Questions for the Record: Hon. Nickie J. Antonio; submitted
by Rep. Simon.
* Questions for the Record: Hon. Michael D. Dovilla; submitted
by Rep. Simon.
* Questions for the Record: Hon. Keith Faber; submitted by Rep.
Simon.
These documents were submitted after the hearing, and may be
available upon request.
UNIVERSAL BASIC FRAUD: VULNERABILITIES
IN MEDICAID WAIVER PROGRAMS
----------
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2026
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing
Institutional Abuses
Washington, D.C.
The Task Force met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., Room
2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Brandon Gill,
[Chairman of the Task Force] presiding.
Present: Representatives Gill, Comer, Jordan, Biggs,
Donalds, Jack, Simon, Walkinshaw, and Pressley.
Also present: Representative Brown.
Mr. Gill. This hearing on the Task Force on Defending
Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses will
come to order.
Welcome, everybody. Without objection, the Chair may
declare recess at any time. I now recognize myself for the
purpose of making an opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN BRANDON GILL
REPRESENTATIVE FROM TEXAS
Good morning, and welcome to the first hearing for the Task
Force on, again, Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing
Institutional Abuses.
America's Medicaid system was designed to provide
healthcare for low-income Americans. Unfortunately, as
reporting from Luke Rosiak at the Daily Wire has recently
revealed, fraudsters and cheats are stealing billions in hard-
earned American tax dollars. This is something we have seen
before, unfortunately. Just a couple months ago, the House
Oversight Committee examined a similar problem in Minnesota
where Somali fraudsters stole over $16 billion from American
taxpayers.
Today, we are going to be focusing on Ohio, which appears,
in many ways, quite similar. Ohio broadened its Medicaid
program through home and community-based services, or HCBS,
waivers authorized under the Social Security Act. HCBS waivers
allow states to provide home-based healthcare, as opposed to
providing healthcare in hospitals or other institutions. These
waivers also allow states to cover non-medical personal care
services such as cooking and cleaning, as well as companionship
and conversation.
The problem is that fraudsters are billing Medicaid for
personal care services that were never actually provided in
many cases. Here is how it works. A fraudster finds an elderly
person in Ohio, oftentimes a family member, who he believes
will qualify for Federally-funded home health services. The
fraudster then gets a note from a doctor which vouches for the
elderly person's supposed needs. Because the fraudster is
unequipped to deal directly with the Medicaid bureaucracy, he
contracts with a home health business, who acts as an
intermediary between himself and the Federal Government. The
business then facilitates Medicaid payments from the taxpayer
to the fraudster while taking a cutoff of the top. In the
personal care Medicaid waiver program in Ohio alone, taxpayers
have lost an estimated $1.2 billion due to fraud; $1.2 billion
of hard-earned American tax dollars are now in the hands of
criminals.
So, who are these fraudsters? Well, just like in Minnesota,
many of them are Somali. There are an estimated 60,000 Somalis
living in Ohio right now. That means that Ohio is the second
largest Somali population in America, second only to Minnesota.
In addition to Somali fraudsters, Ohio is home to the largest
population of Bhutanese immigrants in America. Recent reporting
shows that many of the Somali and Bhutanese communities commit
a large portion, if not the majority, of home health Medicaid
fraud in Ohio. That may not be the politically correct thing to
say, but we believe that is the truth.
So, what do we know about these businesses that are
facilitating Medicaid fraud? Thanks to Rosiak's investigative
reporting, we know quite a bit. They oftentimes have names like
Capital Home Health, Continental Home Health, Dynamic Home
Health Care, or Ohio Senior Home Health Care, or some
derivation of a similar name. Many of them operate out of
largely abandoned, often windowless buildings like the one at
6161 Busch Boulevard, which is home to 94 different companies
that have recently billed Medicaid $66 million. There have also
been multiple reports of other abandoned buildings, companies
sharing the same address and corporate names that are
identical. Indeed, many of these companies appear virtually
indistinguishable from one another. They do not advertise
themselves, they charge the same rates, and offer no clear
explanation of how they even acquired large numbers of
patients, often seemingly overnight.
So, I think what the American people would like to better
understand, and one of the purposes of this hearing, is why was
this allowed to happen? Of course, part of the answer is, in
fact, immigration. The reality is that America would not have a
problem with Somali and Bhutanese fraud if we did not import
large numbers of Somali and Bhutanese people. That is a fact.
This appears to be the tip of the iceberg of a gross abuse of
America's immigration system. For too long, our government
allowed foreigners from low-trust societies with very little
vetting to pour into our communities.
Now, as elected officials, we cannot stand idly by as these
fraudsters exploit our welfare system and get rich off American
taxpayers, and we cannot back down to fraud simply because of
spurious accusations of racism.
Second, as we will discuss, we have a problem with
verifying the integrity of America's welfare programs. Programs
like the Electronic Visit Verification system, including its
GPS tracking system, were not properly utilized. That means
that in many cases, we cannot even verify if any of the billed
home health services were even provided. In many cases, family
members are billing Medicaid for alleged services provided to
their own relatives. At the same time, we have seen billboards
in Columbus advertise that people can get paid for caring for a
loved one at home.
The result is that fraudsters and fraudulent home health
businesses are stealing massive sums of money by abusing and
defrauding Federal Medicaid. This is not just about
safeguarding our constituents' hard-earned tax dollars, but it
is also about saving our society from fraudsters and cheats and
protecting the availability of critical programs for the
American people. According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services Administrator Oz, half of all fraud in Federal
Government programs is in healthcare. He recently revealed that
eliminating fraud in Medicare alone would double the life
expectancy of the Medicare Trust Fund without any other
legislative fixes.
The purpose of this hearing is to better understand the
nature, scale, and scope of Medicaid fraud in Ohio, to
understand why it happened, and to better understand who is
responsible.
I want to thank our witnesses for appearing today on this
important topic.
And with that, I would like to yield to Ranking Member
Simon for her opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF RANKING MEMBER
LATEEFAH SIMON
REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA
Ms. Simon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for our
witnesses and members of the public for attending today.
This is the first hearing convened by the Task Force on
Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional
Abuses. And I have to say, if this hearing is any indication of
what this Task Force intends to do, I think the American people
have reason to be a bit concerned because they are being
gaslit. Families across the country are struggling to afford
rent, they are struggling to afford groceries, they are
struggling to afford healthcare, and they are struggling to
afford childcare. And many, particularly our elders, are
wondering how they are going to retire one day. Seniors are
worried about the future of Medicare and Social Security. Our
disabled populations are fighting every day to access the care
for the services that they need to live.
And yet, we are here. We are here having this conversation.
Republicans have called this hearing on universal basic fraud.
But before we have heard a single witness--and again, thank you
all for being here--before we have received a single finding,
the conclusion has already been written. The premise is that
the public benefit programs are inherently suspect--inherently
suspect--and that the people who rely on them should be viewed
with both skepticism and distrust rather than compassion. And I
wholeheartedly and forcefully reject this premise.
Now let me be clear--and I want this to be heard again loud
and clear--fraud should and must be investigated. Inefficient
systems must be addressed. Bad actors should be held
accountable wherever they exist. But one bad actor, even a few
bad actors do not and should never define an entire program.
Millions, and we mean millions, of Americans rely on Medicaid.
Seniors rely on it. Disabled folks rely on it. Working families
rely on it. Caregivers rely on it.
And as somebody--me--who has cared for a terminally ill
person, the person that I love most in the world, my husband,
we received and got a ton of community support, including home
health. I know that these services are not just lifelines, but
they are often the difference between stability and literal
crisis.
Well, what concerns me most is that too often conversations
like this one are not actually about accountability. They
become the justification for gutting the social safety net that
Americans have paid into. They become a justification for
making it harder for people to access care, the people that we
care most about. They become the justification for undermining
programs that millions of people depend on each and every day.
And they become the justification for subjugating entire
classes of people. Yes, subjugating entire classes of people.
So, if Republicans are truly concerned, truly concerned
about fraud and waste, then we as a body should be willing to
apply that standard consistently. We and my Republican
colleagues should be willing to explain why, why they have
pursued the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history while
supporting and funding an illegal and immoral war and a
ballroom at the White House.
The question before us is not whether fraud should be
addressed. It should be the question of why my colleagues are
spending our time--are spending our time--tearing down a
program that helps real people, the sick, the disabled, the
elderly, instead of addressing the high cost and conditions
that families in this country are dealing with on a daily
basis.
I hope today's hearing focuses on solutions, and, Mr.
Chairman, I hope we can distinguish between isolated instances
of wrongdoing, real wrongdoing, and the millions of people who
rely on these services in good faith. And I hope that we
remember that protecting the integrity of Medicaid ultimately
lifts up and benefits all Americans, all Americans.
Thank you, and I yield back.
And actually, I would love to enter unanimous consent.
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Ms. Simon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that Representatives
Brown, Landsman, and Sykes of Ohio be allowed to participate in
today's hearing.
Mr. Gill. I will, in fact, object to that. We have
discussed through the staff earlier that we are not having
waive-ons for this hearing.
Ms. Simon. Well, and I understand that, but what is really
important, I would like to ask the question of why. I have a
parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Chairman. This hearing is about
Ohio. Ohio Democrats asked to waive on, and we were told by
Committee Republicans that they could. And just yesterday, just
yesterday, we were told at the last minute that you are no
longer allowing Ohio Members to participate in a hearing about
Ohioans. I would love to ask why.
So, Mr. Chairman, what is the reason for your refusal to
allow Ohioans, who are representing their people, to
participate in today's hearing?
Mr. Gill. I mean, waive-ons are at the discretion of the
Chair, and we have decided that it is going to be best if we
keep this hearing limited to just the Members of the Chair, but
I appreciate the inquiry.
Ms. Simon. Mr. Chairman----
Ms. Brown. But Mr. Chairman, if I may----
Ms. Simon. Mr. Chairman, I am confused because we have
Members who are elected by the people of Ohio who sit on the
Oversight Committee and other Members of Congress----
Mr. Gill. And they could have been added----
Ms. Simon [continuing]. And they have asked to waive on.
Mr. Gill [continuing]. To this Committee so----
Ms. Simon. Well, you actually said yes----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. They could have been added to the
Committee----
Ms. Simon. Mr. Chairman, yesterday, you asked----
Mr. Gill. No, we are----
Ms. Simon. You said that they could.
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Going to keep this--we are going to
move on, and I would like to briefly recognize----
Ms. Simon. That is extremely unfortunate.
Ms. Brown. Mr. Chairman, if I may, parliamentary inquiry,
please.
Mr. Gill. Sure.
Ms. Brown. As the Member--as the one Democrat----
Mr. Gill. The gentlelady is not recognized. I recognize Mr.
Jordan----
Ms. Brown. As the one Member----
Mr. Gill. The gentlelady is not recognized.
Ms. Brown [continuing]. Of the Democratic Member of Ohio on
this Committee----
Mr. Gill. The gentlelady is not recognized.
Ms. Brown. I am on the Committee. Why are you not allowing
me to speak as a Member of the Committee, the Committee of----
Mr. Gill. You are not on this Task Force. You are not
recognized. We are going to move on.
I now recognize Mr. Jordan very briefly.
Mr. Jordan. I thank the Chairman. I just wanted to
welcome--I have been in Congress a few years, and I do not know
if we have ever had a hearing where we had three folks from our
great state testifying, folks that I do not know, Hon. Ms.
Antonio, but I do know Mr. Dovilla, and of course, I have known
Mr. Faber for a long time. They have served our state well, and
we appreciate that. In fact, I think auditor is actually stuck
with me as his Member of Congress, so, God bless you for
putting up with me.
But we want to welcome the folks from Ohio, appreciate you
being here today. And, of course, we welcome Mr. Rosiak as
well.
And with that, I would yield back.
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And now I would like to
welcome our witnesses. Thank you all for taking the time to be
here.
First, we have Luke Rosiak. Luke is an investigative
reporter for the Daily Wire. Mr. Rosiak broke the story on
Medicaid HCBS, the waiver program in Ohio. So, thank you for
being here.
Next, we have Keith Faber. He is the Ohio State Auditor.
Mr. Faber took office in 2019. Under his leadership, his office
has conducted audits identifying improper and fraudulent
Medicaid billing.
Next, we have Michael Dovilla, a Member of the Ohio House
of Representatives from the 17th District. Mr. Dovilla served
for years previously in the legislature but most recently took
office in 2025 and serves as the Vice Chairman of the Ohio
House Finance Committee. He is an outspoken critic of Medicaid
fraud and an advocate for oversight and reforms.
Finally, we have Nickie Antonio, State Senator for Ohio's
23d Senate District. Senator Antonio has been in office since
2019 and serves as Ohio Senate Minority Leader.
Thank you all for joining us, and I very much look forward
to your testimony.
Mr. Gill. Pursuant to Committee rule 9(g), the witnesses
will please stand and raise their right hand.
Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you
are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. Rosiak. I do.
Mr. Dovilla. I do.
Mr. Faber. I do.
Ms. Antonio. I do.
Mr. Gill. Let the record show that the witnesses answered
in the affirmative. Thank you. You can take a seat.
We appreciate you being here today, and I look forward to
all of your testimonies. Let me remind the witnesses that we
will have read your written statement in full, and it will
appear in full in the hearing record. Please limit your oral
statements to 5 minutes. As a reminder, please press the button
on the microphone in front of you so that it is on and the
Members can hear you. When you begin to speak, the light in
front of you will turn green. After 4 minutes, the light will
turn yellow. When the red light comes on, your 5 minutes will
have expired, and we will ask you to please wrap up.
With that said, we will begin with your testimonies, and I
would like to recognize Luke Rosiak for his opening statement.
STATEMENT OF MR. LUKE ROSIAK
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, DAILY WIRE
Mr. Rosiak. Thank you, Chairman Gill, Ranking Member Simon,
Task Force Members. It is an honor to be with you to discuss
the Daily Wire's investigation into Medicaid home health waiver
fraud.
The Federal Government built a program so easy to game that
a convicted fraudster can get approved to send unsupervised and
untrained workers into elderly Americans' homes, and a refugee
family can collect $90,000 a year simply by having one family
member claimed to be the other's caregiver, with no
verification and little oversight. Medicaid calls this personal
services home healthcare, and my investigation found
millionaire tax cheats, almost all of them foreign-born,
ripping off taxpayers at a scale that threatens to bankrupt
America.
We all have families, all of us have parents that will get
old, and yet in some states, Medicaid will pay you simply for
being a normal person, as a home health aide whose job it is to
provide cooking, cleaning, or just companionship and
conversation to your own family member. The Federal Government
has agreed to give waivers to certain states, letting them run
these programs, even though 70 percent of that cost is paid by
the Feds.
This was something that was sold to us as saving money
because it would be used as an alternative to nursing homes,
but it did not work out that way. A lot more people started
claiming to be sick when there was a financial benefit to their
family for being sick. And so, this program has more than
doubled in cost in just the last few years. The number of
people doing this in some communities has become so large that
you can see it in aggregate job statistics. The State of
California recently reported gaining jobs while it actually
lost jobs, unless you count the people that are getting paid by
the government to take care of their own family members. In New
York State, it is the most common job now of any profession to
be a home health aide. That is the scale we are talking about
here.
Now, in February, The Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) released data listing corporations that are paid
by Medicaid. By far, the largest billing code is personal
services at $140 billion over the last several years. Personal
services is the medical jargon for stuff that is not medical at
all. It is these housekeepers and people providing conversation
and companionship.
I did some data analysis to identify suspicious patterns.
The data immediately pointed me to Columbus, Ohio. It turns out
you can drive down the street in parts of northeast Columbus,
and every single building is basically a home healthcare
provider. One building had 94 businesses inside that billed a
combined $66 million to taxpayers. I began looking up these
companies in public records, and what I found was really
shocking. Many of the owners, maybe most of them, had other
full-time jobs. This was a side hustle for them to get a couple
million bucks, sometimes a year, sometimes a month, from
Medicaid. A lot of times they had tax liens against them. They
were getting all this money from taxpayers, and yet they were
not paying their own taxes. They oftentimes or sometimes had
criminal records.
True Home Healthcare is run by a man with three fraud
convictions and by his wife who has three theft convictions, a
nice couple there. When I asked them basic questions about what
his business did, you know what he did? He threatened my
family. These are the kind of people that our government pays
to go into the homes of little old ladies where anything could
happen. There is no--they are inside private residences. And
the same reason it makes it so hard to prevent fraud in this
program because it is very hard to show that somebody actually
went to the private residence that they said they were.
Other times it seems when the business is not in the name
of a criminal, it is--oftentimes seems like it was put in the
straw--in a straw owner's name. There was an example where
Omega Home Health Services was incorporated by the wife of a
felon who had previously been convicted of ripping off the
Federal Government by giving out these fake, nonexistent
services to old people. So, he gets caught, and then his wife
creates a company doing the same thing, and the Federal
Government says, yes, that is fine, have $6 million.
There is a company that was founded on paper by a teenager,
and the teenager turned out to be the son of a convicted money
launderer. And so, you know, you can think maybe the teenager
was not actually the one running this company.
Only after my database queries highlighted the
abnormalities in Columbus did I learn that there was another
similarity to Minnesota. Columbus contained the second largest
concentration of Somalis in the United States, as well as the
largest concentration of Bhutanese people outside of Bhutan.
Now, I visited hundreds of home healthcare companies and only
saw, I think, two people that did not have an accent.
Whistleblowers in the area tell me companies knock on doors
in ethnic neighborhoods where most people are on Medicaid and
most people live in multigenerational households. And they tell
the older family member to go to particular doctors and claim
particular symptoms, and then they will put the younger family
member on their payroll with the parent as their only patient.
Now, that triggers payments of up to $90,000 a year, which the
company splits with the younger relative, and the younger
relative splits with the older relative.
Eighty-one percent of Bhutanese are on welfare, a fact that
some of the remainder use to become obscenely rich. And I had a
story just yesterday. A 29-year-old named Roshan Adhikari works
at his dad's home healthcare company. His social media
documents a life fit for a rapper or a movie star. He is
drinking champagne on private jets. He is on his yacht. He is
making movies, starring himself. This was funded. His dad was--
his dad has this company that was paid $17 million for taking
care of old people. Well, he has got apparently another full-
time job. He is doing this on the side. The dad has not paid
taxes in like five years. He has got tax liens in Ohio at the
state level and at Cuyahoga County. And the 25-year-old brother
has his own home healthcare company that got $10 million. So,
these are people that came here as refugees, and now they are
living as millionaires, and they are getting the money because
the other refugees are all on Medicaid and then are claiming to
be very sick.
Any private nurse--you do not even have to be a doctor--can
sign off on somebody being so sick. And that is, I think, at
the root of the problem here, is we have people claiming to be
eligible for this program who really should not be. Companies
are committing fraud by paying kickbacks for no-show jobs. The
patients are committing fraud. But we are just beginning to
look into the root of the monster, the network of doctors who
rubberstamp this fraud. That is a criminal enterprise that I
think----
Ms. Brown. Regular order. I know I am not waived onto the
Committee, but this is ridiculous.
Mr. Gill. Ma'am, you are not recognized.
Ms. Brown. As a person from Ohio----
Mr. Gill. You are not on this Committee at all.
Ms. Brown. As a person from Ohio----
Mr. Gill. This is not your Committee.
Ms. Brown [continuing]. Who cannot speak, and you are just
going to let----
Mr. Gill. You are not recognized.
Ms. Brown. Please----
Ms. Simon. I would ask----
Mr. Gill. You are not recognized.
Ms. Simon [continuing]. Myself to be recognized that we
have----
Ms. Brown. This is absolutely absurd.
Ms. Simon [continuing]. Regular order for--I would ask to
be recognized.
Mr. Gill. Mr. Rosiak is finishing up. You have got----
Mr. Rosiak. Correct.
Mr. Gill [continuing]. 5 seconds to finish.
Mr. Rosiak. I am finished.
Mr. Gill. Correct.
Ms. Simon. Just my 5 seconds I would love to take----
Mr. Gill. And we will give your side----
Ms. Simon [continuing]. Is I just would love----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. That as well.
Ms. Simon [continuing]. Because you have gone over a
minute, for the rest of the witnesses to have the same ability
to speak.
Mr. Gill. You are not recognized. You are not recognized.
Ms. Simon. Okay.
Mr. Gill. We are going to move on.
Ms. Simon. I hope you are going to be fair in this hearing.
Mr. Gill. We will be fair.
I now recognize Auditor of the State, Keith Faber, for his
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. KEITH FABER
OHIO AUDITOR OF STATE
Mr. Faber. Well, thank you, Chairman Gill, Ranking Member
Simon, and Members of the Task Force. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify today regarding fraud risk and oversight
concerns with Medicaid.
As Ohio's Auditor of State, my office is responsible for
ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent legally, transparently, and
efficiently. American taxpayers do not care whether dollars
originate from the Federal Government or the state. They simply
know that it is their money, and they do not want it stolen,
wasted, or abused.
Since taking office, my administration has worked
aggressively to identify fraud, waste, and abuse, and control
failures. To date, we have identified more than $9 billion in
unsupported or fraudulent public expenditures with Medicaid and
unemployment programs representing the two largest areas of
concern.
As auditor, my office has secured convictions in more than
164 public officials, while also expanding fraud reporting
initiatives, fraud awareness campaigns, and cybersecurity
training efforts. Most recently, my office has engaged with our
Federal partners on public benefits fraud, including
participation in the Vice President's Task Force here in
Washington.
Earlier this year, when significant Medicaid concerns
surfaced in Ohio, we quickly shared our findings with the
Federal partners to help inform broader oversight and
enforcement efforts. But our work has not stopped at the
Federal level. Over the last several months, I have testified
multiple times before the Ohio General Assembly, repeatedly
raising these concerns, outlining the weaknesses our audits and
reviews have identified, and urging lawmakers to strengthen
oversight, accountability, and fraud prevention across the
Medicaid program.
There is one point I want to make clear. Our role as
auditors is not to administer the Medicaid programs or
adjudicate eligibility decisions. We audit government and look
for control weaknesses. It is the benefit agency's
responsibility to detect and identify individual beneficiary
waste, fraud, and abuse. Our role is to identify weaknesses and
controls, detect anomalies, investigate credible tips, and
report findings so corrective action can occur.
In this year's single state audit, which is a rigorous,
comprehensive financial compliance audit, we identified
potentially up to $4.4 billion in fraud-related exposure
connected to ineligible recipients in Ohio's Medicaid programs.
Our testing found an ineligible rate of 15.6 percent. This
year's findings remain--again highlighted the need for
sustainably and substantially stronger oversight and internal
controls.
Today, I want to focus on two areas where our office
identified significant concerns: the electronic visit
verification, or the GPS system that ensures providers are
where they say they are, and individuals who are enrolled in
Medicaid in multiple states at the same time. Congress required
EVV systems to help ensure accountability in Medicaid-funded
home care services. The purpose is straightforward. Verify that
services occurred, the right caregiver provided those services,
and that the services occurred at the authorized time and
location.
Our audit found that approximately 56 percent of home care
services were not processed through the EVV system,
representing an estimated $1.1 billion of a nearly $2 billion
in paid claims that were not matched with EVV visits. This is a
significant control weakness. Our audit work identified
problems involving incomplete or inaccurate visit data,
inconsistent provider compliance, and insufficient oversight
mechanisms.
One important lesson from this work is that collecting
large amounts of data does not automatically create
accountability. Technology alone does not prevent fraud.
Oversight agencies must have the staffing, analytical tools,
and authority necessary to identify suspicious patterns and to
act quickly when concerns emerge. Most importantly, they need
to be motivated to enforce those controls.
Our office has recommended stronger transparency measures,
enhanced provider monitoring, and better use of predictive
analytics to identify abnormal billing activity before improper
payments occur in the Department of Medicaid. In fact, in March
2024, our office released a report on concurrent enrollment,
finding that more than 124,000 individuals were enrolled in
Ohio Medicaid and at least one other state for three
consecutive months. Ohio paid managed care organizations more
than $1 billion associated with these enrollees. These findings
highlight broader systemic challenges facing Medicaid oversight
nationally, including fragmented data systems, outdated
technology, delayed reporting, limited real-time monitoring
capabilities, and insufficient interstate data.
Too often, Medicaid oversight still operates under a pay-
and-chase model where taxpayer dollars go out first and
recovery happen--efforts happen later, sometimes years later.
Prevention is substantially more effective than post-payment
recovery.
Our office recently provided recommendations to both the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services focused on
strengthening Medicaid program integrity. These recommendations
included expanding predictive analytics, improving interstate
data sharing, strengthening provider screening processes,
enhancing transparency tools, and improving prepayment review
systems.
Medicaid was created to protect society's most vulnerable.
Unfortunately, bad actors are abusing the system to enrich
themselves. Across the country, those administering these
programs have failed to protect taxpayers. Core safeguards have
been compromised, removed, or simply ignored. As a result,
everyday Americans are finding it harder to afford their own
lives. They are subsidizing the abuse of the system. This is an
affront to fiscal responsibility and rule of law. We must stop
this waste, fraud, and abuse to ensure that there are resources
to serve those who truly need these services and, equally
important, to avoid passing on even more debt to our children
and grandchildren.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I look
forward to answering your questions.
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Mr. Faber.
I now recognize Ohio Representative Michael Dovilla for his
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL DOVILLA
THE OHIO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DISTRICT 17
Mr. Dovilla. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Gill, Ranking Member Simon, and Members of the
Task Force, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
today. My name is Mike Dovilla. I represent the 17th District
in the Ohio House of Representatives. I previously served in
the House from 2011 to 2016, chairing the Oversight Committee
and serving as Majority Whip. I have also served twice as a
Presidential appointee at the U.S. Office of Personnel
Management and professional staff member on the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee. For more than 25 years, I have
worked to increase accountability and transparency in
government as a steward of taxpayer dollars.
When I first served in the legislature, I opposed Medicaid
expansion. I believe then, as I do now, that expanding the
program without adequate safeguards places taxpayers at risk
and undermines the very people it is designed to serve.
Medicaid must be preserved for those who genuinely need it:
low-income families, expectant mothers, seniors, individuals
with disabilities who depend on a functioning safety net. But a
safety net cannot work if it becomes a target for fraud, waste,
and abuse.
My current work on this issue began the way many
legislative investigations do, with a constituent. A concerned
citizen from Strongsville brought to my attention serious
questions about eligibility verification within our state's
Medicaid program, particularly in the aged, blind, disabled
eligibility group. That concern led my office to begin asking
basic questions.
In April 2025, I contacted third-party vendors involved in
Medicaid eligibility verification. My request was
straightforward. Provide information on how Ohio verifies
eligibility, how data are used to detect ineligible recipients,
and what happens when potential problems are identified.
The responses raised more questions than they answered. One
vendor reported its asset verification tool had reviewed a
portion of Ohio's Medicaid Aged, Blind and Disabled (ABD)
population and identified a significant number of individuals
whose assets appeared to exceed the eligibility limits. To be
clear, a data flag is not a final eligibility determination.
Some assets may be exempt, and every individual deserves a
proper review.
But the obvious next question was, what did ODM, the Ohio
Department of Medicaid, do with those flags? That is where
oversight deficiencies became clear. When my office pressed
ODM, the answers were unsatisfactory. The department pointed to
county-level determinations and the role of the Social Security
Administration. Those factors are real, but they do not relieve
the state of its obligation to know whether taxpayer dollars
are being spent properly. At a minimum, the state should be
able to track what happens when its own eligibility systems or
vendors identify potential ineligibility.
If a department cannot tell legislators what happened to
flag cases, cannot clearly identify why hundreds of thousands
of people left the rolls, and cannot demonstrate a reliable
statewide process for reconciling eligibility concerns, then we
do not have program integrity. We have fragmentation.
That is why in June 2025 I introduced House Bill 356. The
bill required a data-sharing agreement between ODM and the
auditor of state and directed a full ABD audit. As a member of
the Biennial Operating Budgets Conference Committee, I was
successful in inserting and retaining those provisions of my
bill in the final report. While Governor DeWine used his line-
item veto on 67 budget items, to my surprise, he did not veto
this provision, allowing the audit to become law.
It is important to be candid about the nature of this work.
An audit of Medicaid is not a quick exercise. It involves a
large number of people, multiple data systems, sensitive
personal information, eligibility categories, asset rules,
county-level determinations, Federal requirements, and
historical records. It takes time to conduct the work properly.
But the audit is essential. It is not enough to exchange
letters, make public statements, and move on. We need data,
verification, and corrective action. And when public funds have
been improperly paid, we need recovery and consequences.
Speaker Huffman recently appointed me to the Medicaid
Committee of the House, where I am working with colleagues on a
comprehensive Medicaid integrity bill, including provisions to
strengthen provider enrollment, improve electronic visit
verification, impose additional safeguards on high-risk
providers, enhance fraud reporting, and increase penalties for
fraud. Our purpose is simple: verify eligibility and services,
identify bad actors earlier, and ensure real consequences when
people defraud taxpayers. We expect that bill to move for swift
passage by next week.
This should not be a partisan issue. Medicaid fraud harms
taxpayers, certainly, but it also harms legitimate providers
who follow the rules. It harms caseworkers and public servants
whose work is undermined by weak systems. Most importantly, it
harms the truly vulnerable Ohioans who depend on Medicaid and
whose care is threatened when finite resources are diverted to
those who do not qualify or to providers who exploit loopholes.
We can have a serious debate about the size and scope of
Medicaid. We can have a serious debate about the proper
relationship of Federal and state governments. But there should
be no debate about whether government has an obligation to
protect--to prevent fraud, recover misspent dollars, and
protect those whom the program is intended to serve.
My message today, Mr. Chairman, is simple. Medicaid is for
the people who need it, not for those who have learned how to
manipulate it. Oversight is not cruelty. Verification is not
extremism. Accountability is not partisanship. It is the
minimum taxpayers expect and the minimum our most vulnerable
citizens deserve.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I look
forward to answering questions and working alongside you to
improve accountability and transparency in the administration
of the Medicaid program for Ohio and the Nation.
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Mr. Dovilla.
Now I recognize Ohio Senator Nickie Antonio for her opening
remarks. If you can turn your microphone on. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF HON. NICKIE ANTONIO (MINORITY WITNESS)
THE OHIO SENATE, DISTRICT 23
Ms. Antonio. Okay. Can we start again? Thank you.
Thank you, Chair Gill, Ranking Member Simon, and Members of
this Task Force, for the opportunity to testify today.
During my 16 years in the Ohio legislature, I have served
as Ranking Member on the House and Senate Health Committees. I
have witnessed the impact of Ohio's Medicaid program to the
state's most vulnerable. It is a privilege to be a steward of
hard-earned taxpayer dollars that fund our programs. Doing
everything we can to prevent fraud is certainly an important
part of the stewardship.
In 2020--2014, I was one of the ten legislators appointed
to the inaugural Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, JMOC.
JMOC's purpose was to provide oversight to improve the rate of
spending and quality of Medicaid. JMOC proved to be true and
effective to its mission when it exposed problems with pharmacy
benefit managers, PBMs, who were strong-arming pharmacists and
using anticompetitive business practices. As a result of JMOC's
oversight, Ohio created the single PBM system currently in
operation, saving Ohio Medicaid over $140 million.
In 2025, this oversight Committee was abolished by the
Republican Majority. Why? Some question the timing. JMOC was
conducting an investigation into contracts with Gainwell, the
Nation's largest Medicaid claims processor. Coincidence? I do
not know. What I do know is that Democrats in the legislature
were opposed to dismantling JMOC.
While Ohioans struggle to afford to put food on the table,
fill their gas tank, or pay their skyrocketing utility bills,
the Republican majority has continuously showed how out of
touch they are. They have prioritized handouts to the wealthy
and the well-connected on the backs of hard-working everyday
Ohioans. At the top of the list is the largest public
corruption case in Ohio history, House Bill 6, a $61 million
dark money bribery and racketeering scandal that put former
Republican Speaker of the House in Federal prison for 20 years.
The administration has refused to pay nursing homes almost $1
billion in back pay, despite being ordered to do so by the Ohio
Supreme Court. Given $1.6 billion in tax breaks, $1.4 billion
more than the administration calculated, to the wealthy tech
corporations to build data centers that place heavy resource
burdens on local communities.
Exhibit A, Republicans' one-party veto-proof rule has
controlled the state for the last 15 consecutive years. They
hold the House, the Senate, the Governor's Office, and four
statewide offices. If there is fraud in Medicaid, it has
happened on the Republican Majority's watch. Perhaps it is time
to clean Ohio's House.
Recently, Senator Ernst opined, ``Government employees are
caught with their hands in the cookie jar, abusing their
positions for personal gain.'' Well, Ohio Republicans appear to
be emulating the playbook of the White House. The President of
the United States is fleecing taxpayers across the country to
fight endless wars, attempting to bankroll numerous vanity
projects, and tried to stick his hand in a cookie jar, a $1.8
billion cookie jar made especially for January 6 insurgents.
With an unpopular Republican gubernatorial candidate in
Ohio and even more out-of-touch policies, I am not surprised
that we suddenly have a call for fraud reform in Ohio--
Medicaid. If there is fraud, we should root it out and remedy
the situation. I am surprised that somehow the Republicans
think they are not responsible, as the supervision of the
Department of Medicaid has happened on their watch.
I applaud the goal of this Task Force, which was described
``going after institutions that stop fearing accountability and
abuse the American people.'' We should absolutely be doing
everything we can to expose and prevent fraud, use new
technologies to provide oversight and accountability. These are
not and should not be partisan but should be a welcome part of
any system that serves the people.
Members of my caucus and I are ready to work with everyone
to tackle issues of fraud, especially the abuse of taxpayer
dollars, which is in its essence abuse of the American people.
We must maintain fiscal responsibility while ensuring that
Medicaid is available to those eligible, people who are aged,
blind, disabled, children, and families in need.
Thank you for this opportunity to testify. I will do my
best to answer your questions.
Ms. Simon. Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Gill. Yes.
Ms. Simon. I would like to ask unanimous consent to enter
into the record. Is that okay?
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Ms. Simon. Thank you. I would like to enter into the record
an article, February 4, 2026, from NBC entitled ``Immigrants
Contributed Trillions of Dollars More in Taxes Than They
Received in Benefits.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Ms. Simon. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Donalds. Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to
enter some items----
Mr. Gill. Yes.
Mr. Donalds [continuing]. Into the record.
Mr. Gill. Go for it.
Mr. Donalds. The first one is an article titled ``Daily
Wire investigation reveals one of the biggest government waste
scandals hiding in plain sight.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Donalds. The second is ``Inside Ohio's home health
empire: 7 buildings, 288 Medicaid companies, $250 million.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Donalds. The third is ``Meet the convicted fraudster
running a million-dollar Medicaid business.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Donalds. The fourth is ``He was convicted for
defrauding the government. Now Medicaid pays his wife
millions.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Donalds. The fifth is ``Refugees from Bhutan billed
Medicaid millions. Now they drink champagne in private jets.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Ms. Simon. Mr. Chairman, I ask to enter into a unanimous
consent.
Mr. Gill. Okay.
Ms. Simon. I would ask to enter into the record from May
20, 2026, an article from Cleveland.com entitled ``Ohio
Republicans are rage-baiting over Medicaid fraud, but they have
run the program since 2011.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
All right. Well, thank you again to the witnesses for
taking the time to be here. We certainly appreciate your time
and your testimonies. And now we are moving on to the question
portion of the hearing. So, without further ado, I would like
to recognize Chairman Comer for 5 minutes.
Chairman Comer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
leading this, what I think is going to be a very effective Task
Force for the frustrated American taxpayers.
Mr. Rosiak, your reporting highlights what seems to be the
same problems that we saw in Minnesota and California,
fraudsters claiming Medicaid reimbursement for services that
they never provided, allegations of racism against anyone
looking into the fraud, and state enforcement officials not
doing their part in flagging rapid, unexplained growth. During
your investigation in Ohio, what raised your suspicions that
these providers were committing fraud?
Mr. Rosiak. Well, the first thing is that it was not their
full-time job. Most Americans, I think if you are making $1
million a month, you at least have to show up. It is not part-
time. But they are oftentimes working in trucking, they are
working in nonprofit activism, and things like that.
And there was also just nobody in these buildings. You
would walk down the hall, and there are literally just dozens
of buildings. There are stray cats living like in the parking
lot because nobody ever comes here. There are like smoke
alarms, batteries chirping because nobody is there. It was a
very creepy thing, and it did not seem normal at all.
Chairman Comer. Same thing we saw in Minnesota. How many
providers did you see located at the same address, and why is
that a red flag for fraud?
Mr. Rosiak. Well, in one building, we saw 94 companies.
There is one landlord that owns----
Chairman Comer. How many?
Mr. Rosiak. Ninety-four.
Chairman Comer. In one address?
Mr. Rosiak. Mm-hmm.
Chairman Comer. Wow. You would think a state employee would
catch that. I mean, part of the problem, in my opinion, Mr.
Chairman, with Medicaid is it is overwhelmingly Federal
dollars, but it is administered by the states, so the states
are not as concerned because it is Federal money. It is not
their money. And that is a joke, and I am glad we are doing
something about it. I am glad the Vice President is interested
in it, this Committee is interested in it.
Mr. Rosiak, did you see any other signs that services were
not being provided, like abandoned office space?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes, I saw an office space that was totally
abandoned. I saw offices that had signs that said ``We have
just stepped out to lunch,'' but it was clear that was an
attempt to deceive because there was, for example, stacks of
mail piled up at the door, sometimes postmarked months ago.
Chairman Comer. You also reported companies with rapid and
unusual growth. Should state oversight authorities have been
alarmed by these trends?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes. I mean, for example, there was a janitor
who renamed her LLC to be Mental Health and started billing
Medicaid $100,000 in the first month, later up to $650,000 in
one month, and then she left the country. And so, if you were
to start a roofing business, it takes time to build clients.
How do you get $100,000 in business the first month? That is
something people could ask.
Chairman Comer. Well, I really appreciate your
investigative work. You are curious, and that is what a
journalist is supposed to be. But unfortunately, a lot of the
journalists today are not curious when it comes to fraud and
abuse of taxpayer dollars. So, thank you for your great work.
Auditor Faber, you have been investigating Medicaid fraud
in Ohio for years. It sounds like the recent reporting is not
the first time that you have tried to bring these issues to the
public's attention. What is going on in Ohio with these waiver
programs, and why are they so susceptible to fraud?
Mr. Faber. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Congressman. The short
answer is that whenever we have a big government program, we
essentially historically have predicated these on this trust
concept. You sign up, you say you are eligible, we will believe
you. But the backside of that is we need to be less trusting
and more verifying.
Chairman Comer. Absolutely.
Mr. Faber. And so, we started identifying in 2019
weaknesses in the program where we were seeing systemic
failures in the verification side. And we have now issued a
number, five, six, seven reports where we keep identifying that
you are not going out and checking to see that the people who
you have got on the program are truly eligible and truly
beneficiaries.
You know, in the office, what we always say, we look for
control weaknesses. I do not go out and look to see whether Joe
Smith is supposed to be on Medicaid or not. That is the
department's responsibility. It is the agency's responsibility
to do those verifications. And what we find is, historically,
these verification programs are just not robust and are not
being done efficiently.
Chairman Comer. And that is one of the things that we were
hoping would happen with the states with the Big Beautiful Bill
that they get--I will use Kentucky as an example, my own state.
Once you are on Medicaid, you are pretty much on Medicaid
forever. And Medicaid was created to be a temporary safety net
program. And what has happened, especially in the states that
have expanded Medicaid, it is become an entitlement.
And there is no accountability with respect to all these
new programs. Anytime there is autism, the number of--if there
is more money for autism, it seems like the number of people
that are declared autistic skyrockets. Anytime there is money
put in for mental health, you just have all these providers
that show up and all these people that supposedly are receiving
mental health services, and no one really knows that much about
it.
So, I appreciate the work that you two have done.
Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership on this
issue.
And before I yield, I ask unanimous consent to enter into
the record the Oversight Committee staff report, and I
encourage everyone to read it, ``The Cost of Doing Nothing: How
Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota's Fraud
Explosion.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Chairman Comer. Thank you.
Ms. Simon. Mr. Chairman, I would ask to enter into the
record, unanimous consent.
Mr. Gill. Mm-hmm.
Ms. Simon. Thank you. I would ask to enter into the record
April 21, 2026, a report from Protect Our Care entitled, ``The
Real Fraud: Trump Pardoned the Nation's Biggest Healthcare
Fraudsters,'' which describes how President Trump pardoned over
$2 billion in fraud.
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Ms. Simon. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Gill. Thank you. And we will turn it back over to you.
And I now recognize Ranking Member Simon for her 5 minutes of
questions.
Ms. Simon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have learned a lot from our witnesses today, so again, I
want to thank you for traveling all this way.
You know, Democrats do believe, as do our colleagues across
the aisle, that it is critically important to prevent fraud,
waste, and abuse so that the taxpayer dollars actually help
real people and communities that they were intended to help.
Those found guilty of fraud should be held accountable. That is
without question.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle say that their
pursuit of fraud is to strengthen the Federal programs that
struggling Americans turn to for help. But it is beyond clear
that that is not the truth. Republicans' signature law, the One
Big Beautiful Bill, cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid;
SNAP, which feeds hungry Americans; children's health insurance
programs; and other programs that help folks meet their very
basic needs, the most low-income among us, while this
affordability crisis is drowning our people across the country.
In Ohio, more than 450,000 people are expected to lose
their health insurance coverage by 2034 due to the One Big
Beautiful Bill so that Republicans can instead provide tax cuts
for the wealthiest among us.
This question is for Mr. Faber. Do you agree with my
colleagues in the Republican Party and their decision to rip
health insurance away from over 450,000 Ohioans?
Mr. Faber. First of all, Mr. Chairman, to the
representative, I am not sure that the auditor's position has--
is relevant in that analysis, and I am not sure that that
analysis is one that I would agree with.
What I would say with regard to the question that you are
identifying is whether or not we are looking at fraud or waste
and abuse, I think it is important to distinguish the two. As a
prosecutor, somebody who has a criminal prosecution division,
for us, fraud is a very legal determination.
Ms. Simon. Absolutely.
Mr. Faber. Waste and abuse is a broader question.
Ms. Simon. Thank you.
Mr. Faber. And to the extent that we can do things----
Ms. Simon. I am going to move on.
Mr. Faber [continuing]. Cooperatively to eliminate waste
and abuse, I think we can save an awful lot of money in the
system to provide more benefits for more Ohioans and more
Americans.
Ms. Simon. Sir, thank you so much for your answer. And I
think it is worth noting that yourself and other Members of the
Majority, including the Governor, have a responsibility to
oversee this program; identify waste, fraud, and abuse; and
provide opportunities not only just to identify but to weed
them out and create a stronger system where folks are not able
to defraud the system so easily. That seems like that is the
problem that we should be talking about. How and why did this
happen, not just the folks who committed the fraud. Why was it
so easy?
I have another question for Representative Dovilla. Am I
pronouncing your name correctly?
Mr. Dovilla. Yes, you have it, just like vanilla----
Ms. Simon. Vanilla. People mispronounce my name----
Mr. Dovilla [continuing]. And just as boring, I can assure
you.
Ms. Simon [continuing]. All the time, so I always ask.
Do you agree with the decision to rip away health insurance
from an additional 450,000 Ohioans?
Mr. Dovilla. Mr. Chairman, to the Member, I do not think
that is an accurate characterization. And again, you know----
Ms. Simon. Well, that is helpful. That is helpful to know.
I am going to move on, actually.
I want to make clear why we are asking these questions is
we are trying to, too, get to the bottom of the issue. The
Republican candidate for the Ohio Governorship has called
Medicare and Medicaid mistakes and ``particularly Medicaid,''
the very program Republicans are supposed to be here talking
about serving and saving today.
Senator, I have a question for you, Senator Antonio. Are
Medicare and Medicaid mistakes?
Ms. Antonio. Absolutely not. Medicare and Medicaid protect
thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in our country and
provide them with the healthcare so they can stay healthier,
and actually, in the long run, it is cost-effective.
Ms. Simon. And that is including disabled children who are
bound to their beds and bound to their homes. That is
including, Senator, elders, who are on literally their last
years. That includes folks in deep hospice care, are supported
by these programs. Would you say that is correct?
Ms. Antonio. Absolutely.
Ms. Simon. Across all faiths, races, across, you know, all
parts of Ohio, folks who need these services are granted
support from Medicaid and Medicare. Is that correct?
Ms. Antonio. Yes, absolutely.
Ms. Simon. There are about 120,000 Ohioans who depend on
the Medicaid waiver each year. The home and community-based
health services waivers allow seniors, our elders, with the
opportunity to live with dignity. That is also including folks
with disabilities. I am so thankful for this opportunity to
discuss these incredibly important programs and how Ohio can do
a better job at securing these programs so that people who
really need them can get them.
Thank you so much, and I yield back.
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Ranking Member Simon.
And I would now like to move on and recognize Mr. Jordan
for 5 minutes for questions.
Mr. Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Rosiak, who is Ismail Mohamed?
Mr. Rosiak. Ismail Mohamed is a State Legislator----
Mr. Jordan. State Representative in Ohio?
Mr. Rosiak. Correct.
Mr. Jordan. Currently serving, right? And is he Somali-
American descent?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes.
Mr. Jordan. He is. Okay. In addition to serving in the
legislature, what is his profession? Do you know?
Mr. Rosiak. A lawyer.
Mr. Jordan. He is a lawyer. Do you happen to know where his
law office is?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes. When I was going through these buildings
that were entirely populated by home healthcare firms, I
noticed one thing--one business. I turned to my colleague, and
I said, we finally found something that is not a home
healthcare business. It is a law office. And we did not think
anything of it. I later learned that was the Ismail Law Office,
which is also the campaign headquarters for----
Mr. Jordan. Somali-American, State Representative. His law
office is I think 1395 East Dublin Granville Road. And in that
same facility, there are 35 of these--what did you call them--
$2 million side hustle businesses, right, where they are
ripping off the tax--35 in that--do you happen to know if Mr.
Mohamed was the lawyer who helped set up these LLCs who were
ripping off the taxpayers of the country in the State of Ohio?
Mr. Rosiak. I do not know.
Mr. Jordan. Do not know? Probably a fair question to
explore. Maybe that is the next thing you can dig into, find
out if he was actually setting these organizations up, right,
you know, right across the hall. I am going to--well, we will
create this organization.
Do you know if any of these organizations gave campaign
contributions to Mr. Mohamed?
Mr. Rosiak. I did not look specifically. I wrote about
another candidate that owned a home healthcare business and ran
for office, and his campaign was funded largely by campaign--by
fellow home healthcare owners.
Mr. Jordan. Well, and that guy gave contributions to Mr.
Mohamed, too, right? The guy you looked into got campaign
contributions----
Mr. Rosiak. Mm-hmm.
Mr. Jordan [continuing]. From these LLCs, 35 of them in the
same building where the state rep has his law office.
Mr. Rosiak. Mm-hmm.
Mr. Jordan. That guy you just talked about gave
contributions to Ismail Mohamed. But we did look it up, and he
received thousands of dollars from these companies in his
building that he may or may not have set up, but you are going
to check that out as a good journalist, right? You are going to
find out if that is the case? Wow, that is amazing because we
got the chart from the State Senator that says Republicans. It
is all Republicans, even though they have indicted, I think,
153 indictments, 110 convictions, but somehow it is the
Republicans' fault.
Oh, but I forgot to ask this question. Was Mr. Mohamed,
Ismail Mohamed, in the General Assembly, whose law office is at
the same facility where there are 35 of these HCBS, home
community-based services providers ripping off the taxpayers,
is he a Republican or Democrat?
Mr. Rosiak. He is a Democrat, and like many of the home
healthcare operators, he also had tax debts when I looked him
up, and he also had created a company called the Chiropractic
Center, some sort of medical office or another that was
apparently running, I guess, out of his law office.
Mr. Jordan. It is funny because the good Senator from Ohio,
who has the R's for--you know, the red R's there on her chart,
did not seem to want to mention Mr. Mohamed, who is right in
the middle of this. Literally, his office is right in the
middle of it. But no, no, he did not--no, no way Democrats are
involved.
Here is the pattern I see, and the Chairman of the Full
Committee kind of pointed this out. The similarities between
Minnesota and--well, first, let me ask you this question. Did
anyone call you a racist for trying to just uncover what is
happening to millions, frankly, as the auditor said, billions
of dollars of taxpayer money? Did you get called that?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes. So, half of Ohio's budget roughly is spent
on Medicaid, and that is doubled in the last few years. I tried
to ask one healthcare owner, and I have his exact quote in
response. ``Blah, blah, blah. Who cares? You do not pay my
bills. I am just going to tell everybody you are a racist.''
Mr. Jordan. Yes, that is what always happens. That is how
the left operates. I always point out the left has a template.
The left will tell a lie. We are actually providing services to
elderly Ohioans going into the--the left will tell a lie. Big
media will report, oh, this is wonderful. Big tech will amplify
the lie. You tell the truth. They call you racist. It has
happened in Minnesota. This is the pattern, and this is what
the Chairman was getting at.
Minnesota, it was the same thing, fraud on a huge scale,
Somali-American population involved in it. When they check it
out, they call them racist. The only difference is--the only
difference is in Ohio, they are actually doing something about
it, 153 indictments, 110 convictions. In Minnesota, it was all
the U.S. attorneys. It was not the state. They did not do
squat. And the reason they did not do squat, we have the quote.
This is a person who worked in the Attorney General's Office in
Minnesota. ``There was a perception that forcefully tackling
this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali
community, which is a core voting bloc.'' Politics stopped them
in Minnesota. It is not stopping Mr. Faber, Mr. Dovilla from
doing their work.
The State Senator wants to just criticize Republicans, even
though the guy in the middle of all this is the Democrat State
Representative in the same darn building. Did I get anything
wrong in that assessment, Mr. Faber?
Mr. Faber. Congressman, Chairman, no.
Mr. Jordan. All right. I appreciate it.
With that, I yield. And I want to thank the Chairman for
his good work on this broad issue and what he is doing,
outstanding Member of Congress. We appreciate that.
With that, I yield back.
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Mr. Jordan.
And I now recognize Mr. Walkinshaw from Virginia for 5
minutes.
Mr. Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and
Exposing Institutional Abuses, I am really excited to be here.
Suspending funds that Congress appropriated in violation of
the Impoundment Control Act and the Constitution; firing
independent inspectors general to cover up their waste, fraud,
and abuse; an unconstitutional executive order on birthright
citizenship plainly violating the 14th Amendment of the
Constitution; defying a court order to return Kilmar Abrego
Garcia to the United States; stripping a former Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) cybersecurity
director of their security clearance in a clear act of
political retaliation; altering Federal employees' email to
include partisan language, an act ruled illegal and
unconstitutional; giving DOGE access to individual Social
Security numbers and bank account numbers; illegally sharing
Federal agency data on outside servers; attempting to exempt
DOGE from FOIA; illegally deploying the United States military
inside the United States; using the Department of Justice to
target perceived political enemies, taking place today as we
speak; dismantling cyber and election security; violating the
Emoluments Clause, and accepting billions of dollars in gifts
from foreign leaders, these are just a few of the examples in
which the Trump Administration has violated the Constitution,
abused institutions, disregarded the rule of law.
I know that Chairman Gill has expressed his concerns about
seeing Muslim families in malls in Dallas, but he and Mr.
Jordan had no concerns with President Trump accepting a $400
million airplane from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad
Al Thani. Muslim families in malls is a huge problem. A $400
airplane from the Qatari sheikh, not a problem.
Let us not forget the $1.8 billion slush fund they tried to
ram through to pay off insurrectionists who attempted to
overturn the results of a free and fair election, to pay off
their buddies. When President Trump was asked about the
Constitution and whether he had a responsibility to uphold it,
he said, ``I do not know.''
``Blatantly unconstitutional.'' That is a direct quote.
That is not from me. That is Judge John Coughenour, a
Republican-appointed Federal judge.
``Targeted deportation proceedings continue
unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech.'' Again, not me,
Judge William Young, a Republican-appointed judge.
The lust--``The lust for unbridled power and the imposition
of cruelty in its quest know no bounds in our bereft of human
decency.'' That is District Judge Fred Biery.
This Task Force should be doing everything in its power to
prevent institutional abuses and protect the integrity of the
United States Constitution, and there is a long list of things
we could work on that are taking place right now as we speak.
So, if we are serious about our work here, we should direct it
to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because that is where the
Constitution is being violated. That is where institutions are
being abused.
Senator Antonio, Ohio saw a surge in ICE activity over the
course of the last year as a result of the Trump
Administration's out-of-control mass deportation policies,
often unconstitutional, by the way. Federal judges have said
ICE violated the law, violated court orders more than a hundred
times. Can you just speak to the impact that these policies
have had on your community?
Ms. Antonio. There is a general state of fear in our local
communities. Folks are afraid to attend everything from grocery
stores to their children's schools, show up for court
appearances where they are trying to follow the law, and
everything in between, even show up for their faith
communities. There is fear. There is a level of fear, and
certainly they are unable to go to work.
Mr. Walkinshaw. Are the American citizens you represent
confident that this Administration will follow the
Constitution, follow the law, and not abuse the institutions it
controls? Are your constituents, who are American citizens,
confident of those facts?
Ms. Antonio. My constituents are watching and paying
attention to what is going on both in our communities and
across the country. There is a level of fear. There is not the
faith that the Federal policies and the policies that are
coming from the administration at the Federal level are there
to protect them. They fear that they are to persecute and
prosecute them.
Mr. Walkinshaw. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Gill. Awesome. Thank you, Mr. Walkinshaw.
Before I turn it over to Mr. Biggs, I would like to enter
into the record two different things. First, a transcript from
the March 4, 2026, hearing on fraud and misuse of Federal funds
in Minnesota; part II, where Ms. Ansari said that it was
``outrageous'' that this fraud is what we are choosing to spend
our time on the Oversight Committee.
Second, I would like to enter into the record this article
from Cleveland.com, ``Medicaid fraud scheme in Ohio pushed in
testimony at Senate hearing,'' where Ms. Antonio said, ``I
question whether it is real or not to begin with,'' referring
to fraud. And without objection, those will be entered into the
record.
And now I would like to recognize Mr. Biggs from Arizona
for 5 minutes.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
Senator Dovilla, you were asked about 450,000 people that
had been ripped off of Medicaid in Ohio, if you were okay with
that, and you said you thought that was a mischaracterization,
and you were prohibited from expanding on that. I would like
you to answer that, please.
Mr. Dovilla. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to Mr.
Biggs.
What I was going to say was a reaction to the comments from
the Ranking Member toward the beginning, where she indicated
that Americans are struggling to pay bills and a number of
other things, and I just wanted to indicate that those
challenges are exacerbated by the fraud that we are seeing in
this system. And just to underscore the point that the people
who are on Medicaid, aged, blind, disabled, others who are
qualified for the system under the eligibility requirements
prescribed by Federal law and at the state level, those are the
people that we are looking out for. Every dollar that is being
defrayed and diverted to go somewhere else in the way of waste,
fraud, or abuse is a dollar that cannot be used for someone on
the system who legitimately can benefit from it.
Mr. Biggs. Mr. Faber, you mentioned in your written
statement that there were 164 public officials--you actually
mentioned in your opening statement, too--who your office has
convicted for fraud. What kind of public officials are these?
Are these elected officials or are they bureaucrats?
Mr. Faber. Both. We have criminal jurisdiction when
somebody involved in government is lying, stealing, and
cheating with government money. And so, if it is a public
official, I have convicted county sheriffs, I have convicted
county commissioners, I have convicted transit authority
directors. In fact, I am the first auditor in state history to
do a four day jury trial myself against a regional transit
authority official who was stealing both Federal and state
dollars.
Mr. Biggs. All right. And you mentioned in your statement
that in March 2024, you found that there were 124,000
individuals who were enrolled in Ohio's Medicaid program and at
least one other state, and that you said, ``Ohio paid managed
care organizations more than $1 billion associated with these
enrollees.'' Is that an accurate statement? Are we talking $1
billion for 124,000 people that are multiple enrolled?
Mr. Faber. Correct. What happens is somebody, for whatever
reason, is enrolled in multiple states. This is not a new
problem. It is something the Federal Government and Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) knows about. It is a
problem that Ohio has known about. We have identified it on at
least two or three different occasions. And at one point, our
former Medicaid Director, who candidly did a lot to take down
controls in the system and create some of the problems,
essentially downplayed it. And despite us saying, okay, are
these Medicaid managed care organizations somehow going to be
held accountable for this? Let us get the money back. The
answer historically has been we are aware of the problem, and
nothing to see here.
Mr. Biggs. Yes. We will get to it later. We have the same
problem in Arizona, billions of dollars of Medicaid fraud.
I am going to go next to you, Mr. Rosiak. So, when you say
the largest billing pool is personal services for Department of
Human Services (DHS) is $140 billion. Over how long a period of
time for that?
Mr. Rosiak. This is dating back to 2019-ish.
Mr. Biggs. Okay. So, five, six years, including COVID time?
Mr. Rosiak. Correct.
Mr. Biggs. Okay. And please tell us about one building had
94 companies billing Medicaid more than $66 million. Tell us
about that one building and what you found.
Mr. Rosiak. Sure. I think that the best way to encapsulate
it, the auditor actually found 15 percent of all spending, home
healthcare spending, in the State of Ohio went to two ZIP
codes. And so, when you are talking about all these buildings
in one place and all these recipients in two ZIP codes, what it
makes you think is how is it that the residents of northeast
Columbus are so sick more than anybody else? And Ohio is a big
state, and they have got people from all kinds of walks of
life. You would assume that they would be encountering
debilitating illnesses in their old age at roughly similar
rates.
And so, the issue is when you see buildings with these
concentrations and 15 percent in two ZIP codes is crazy. And it
gets to the idea that there are certain subcommunities in Ohio
that are feigning illness or claiming to be eligible for this
program that was intended to be for old ladies that are on the
verge of death, and they are actually middle-aged and they are
perfectly healthy.
Mr. Biggs. You mentioned one lady in Massachusetts who
stole $100 million by charging for nonexistent home healthcare.
Have we seen that in Ohio as well?
Mr. Rosiak. There have been--I believe it happens very
commonly in Ohio, and there was a GPS rule that was supposed to
make sure people actually were going, and that rule was
actually removed. And so, there is no way to prove they did not
actually go and visit these patients.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I have several UCs I would like to bring
forward.
Mr. Gill. Okay.
Mr. Biggs. ``Biden commutes sentences of two Illinois mega
fraudsters.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``North Dakota judge blasts Biden for setting
fraudsters free.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``Ohio auditor of State, Keith Farber's report,
Electronic Visit Verification, November 2024.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. Same Auditor Farber--Faber. How do you say that?
Faber?
Mr. Faber. Faber.
Mr. Biggs. Faber, Auditor Faber, ``Cost of concurrent
enrollment.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``Analysis: Ohio rocked by fraud. Now what?''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``Arizona nurse practitioner sentenced for role
in Medicaid fraud scheme.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``Minnesota Medicaid operators bankruptcy-to-
riches rise crashes into fraud probe.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``DOJ: Azerbaijan national charged in $90
million California healthcare fraud scheme.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``Five arrested in alleged $267 million hospice
fraud scheme that exploited California's Medi-Cal system.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``Hospice fraud uses stolen identities for fake
patients.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``RFK Jr. announces largest autism fraud bust in
American history with $46.6 million Medicaid scheme
indictment.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. ``California man pleads guilty to orchestrating
$270 million medication reimbursement fraud scheme.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. And ``White House cuts $1.3 billion in Medicaid
payments to California.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, sir. I yield back.
Ms. Simon. Mr. Chair, I have two UC requests, please.
Mr. Gill. Yes.
Ms. Simon. Thank you. I ask unanimous consent to enter into
the record an April 4, 2025, article that KFF Health News
titled, ``Trump health fraud focused at odds with past
pardons,'' which points to the hypocrisy in President Trump's
pardoning convicted fraudsters.
My second UC----
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Ms. Simon. Thank you, sir. My second UC, excuse me, it is
from a December 19, 2025, article from The Washington Post
entitled, ``Trump's pardon wipes out payments to defrauded
victims,'' which shows how our President lets criminals and
fraudsters walk free so long as they donated to his campaign.
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Great. And now I would like to recognize Representative
Pressley from Massachusetts for her 5 minutes.
Ms. Pressley. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Today's hearing is the first one convened by the so-called
Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing
Institutional Abuses. And yet, we are ignoring the fact that
Donald Trump is the single largest threat to our constitution,
and judges across our country have consistently ruled, in fact,
that he has violated the law. And when it comes to
institutional abuses, Trump created a $1.8 billion fund to
directly send taxpayer dollars to his friends and political
allies. That is what I call fraud.
But Republicans want to ignore Trump's culpability, so let
us discuss a Federal Government response to what is happening
in Ohio. Mr. Faber, given your role as state auditor, when
public funds are stolen, what do you consider to be meaningful
accountability?
Mr. Faber. Chairman, Representative, essentially, the
question is, is what do you think needs to happen to people who
are caught stealing, lying, cheating with government money, as
we have done in 165 different cases? You hold them accountable.
If it is convictable fraud, meaning a crime, you prosecute them
and send them to prison.
On the other hand, a lot of what we see, as I talked about
earlier, as somebody who prosecutes fraudsters, is waste or
abuse. And that is essentially a public policy question. You
need to tighten the controls, tighten the eligibility, tighten
the parameters of the program to limit waste and abuse. We lose
more money in waste and abuse than we do in other areas. But
fraud is certainly something--if you catch somebody who
violates the law, you hold them accountable and you prosecute
them. That is what I have done.
Ms. Pressley. Okay. Well, I will just say, yes/and. In my
opinion, accountability must also include restorative justice,
so that means making communities whole. It means putting the
stolen money back into programs that it was taken from and
sending a clear message that theft of public funds simply does
not pay. It is unacceptable.
I do not feel that is the standard that is being modeled by
Republicans. In today's hearing, we have seen and heard people
castigate and attack caregivers who bathe our elders, who cook
for disabled neighbors and keep families together in their
homes. And so, when it comes to holding bad actors accountable
and helping victims, Trump and Republican sycophants seem to me
to be deeply unserious. And that is a choice. It is a
deliberate choice.
Mr. Faber, do you believe that individuals--and this is a
yes or no question, please--that individuals convicted of
healthcare fraud should have to pay restitution, yes or no?
Mr. Faber. Absolutely. We have issued tens of--hundreds of
millions of dollars of----
Ms. Pressley. Thank you.
Mr. Faber [continuing]. Findings for recovery for
restitutions, not just on convictions, but when we find
somebody has violated the rules.
Ms. Pressley. All right. And I will just ask for the entire
dais. Mr. Rosiak----
Mr. Rosiak. Yes.
Ms. Pressley [continuing]. Do you believe individuals
convicted of healthcare fraud should have to pay restitution,
yes or no?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes.
Ms. Pressley. Okay. And Representative Dovilla?
Mr. Dovilla. Yes.
Ms. Pressley. And Senator Antonio?
Ms. Antonio. Yes.
Ms. Pressley. All right. So, you agree, but you know who
does not? Donald J. Trump. In fact, I want to ask a unanimous
consent to enter into the record a June 2025 article from
Truthout titled, ``Trump grants clemency to executive who
orchestrated $250 million in Medicaid fraud scheme.''
Mr. Gill. Without objection.
Ms. Pressley. Now, look, I support using the clemency power
to rectify injustices when the criminal legal system gets it
wrong. But Donald Trump, with the support of Republicans in
Congress, is using his authority to reward fraudsters, and he
is doing so at the expense of victims of fraud.
I published a report called ``Trump's Clemency Gap.'' It
reveals how Trump has prioritized pardoning people who
collectively defrauded the Federal Government of over $2
billion in taxpayer money. For example, in 2011, Florida
resident Lawrence Duran, owner of American Therapeutic
Corporation, was sentenced to 50 years in Federal prison for
orchestrating a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme involving
false and fraudulent claims for mental health services. A
Federal judge ordered Duran to pay more than $87 million in
restitution, which Trump wiped away. This Task Force should
have a hearing about that.
Senator Antonio, do you support Trump denying $87 million
in restitution to victims when he commuted Lawrence Duran? Yes
or no?
Ms. Antonio. No.
Ms. Pressley. Representative Dovilla?
Mr. Dovilla. It is not an issue I have looked at, and it is
not relevant to this hearing.
Ms. Pressley. I am asking you now. So, I would just like
your opinion----
Mr. Dovilla. It is not germane to this hearing,
Congresswoman.
Ms. Pressley. It is pretty clean. Do you support Trump
denying $87 million in restitution to victims when he commuted
Lawrence Duran? Yes or no?
Mr. Dovilla. I stand by the statement I have given you.
Thank you.
Ms. Pressley. Okay. Mr. Rosiak?
Mr. Rosiak. The same answer as Mr. Dovilla.
Ms. Pressley. Well, I do not know. I guess I just have to
take that as a no.
Mr. Faber?
Mr. Faber. I am not familiar with the facts. The short
answer is----
Ms. Pressley. It was publicly reported and----
Mr. Faber [continuing]. The President has diplomacy----
Ms. Pressley [continuing]. I am making you aware of it
right now, so you could just tell me----
Mr. Faber. You are--not without me understanding both
sides. Without the President's facts in the commutation, he has
that power. When----
Ms. Pressley. Well, there is really no ``both sides''
there.
Mr. Faber [continuing]. He commutes somebody, it is----
Ms. Pressley. Somebody----
Mr. Faber. It is his decision.
Ms. Pressley. Okay.
Mr. Faber. Now, the fact is, is there are things that I
disagreed with the Biden pardons as well, but the short
answer----
Ms. Pressley. Fair enough, but that also is not the subject
of this hearing, so that is not germane. But this is, and we
should be having a hearing about that.
Thank you.
Mr. Gill. Thank you, Ms. Pressley.
And now I would like to recognize the great Brian Jack for
5 minutes.
Mr. Jack. Well, first, Mr. Chairman, I open my time by
congratulating you. For those watching at home, this hearing is
a direct byproduct of the meritocracy of the House Republican
Conference. Chairman Gill and I are Members of the 119th
Congress' freshman class. And though just a freshman, Chairman
Gill distinguished himself over the past 17 months as one of
the best investigators and worst enemies of waste, fraud, and
abuse. Chairman Comer and many others across our conference
recognized that leadership and specifically created a Task
Force to expose the institutional abuses and fraud across our
government. And he appointed a freshman, Chairman Gill, as its
Chairman of this Task Force.
So, I congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, on this first hearing
and also the meritocracy of the Republican Majority in
Congress.
I would like to start, if I could, with Mr. Faber. We
represent similar states. Georgia is my home state. I represent
the 3d District of Georgia. And our states have similar
economies, similar populations. I would say similar football,
but we have seen in recent years that is not necessarily the
case.
But I would ask you, if you could, to help personify to my
constituents who may be watching at home just what the impact
is. If you could try to estimate for the average Ohioan the
waste, fraud, and abuse that you have to battle with every day,
what is the cost to the average Ohioan for that?
Mr. Faber. It is real money. As I always say, Bob and Betty
Buckeye do not care whether the money comes out of their front
pocket, their back pocket, their left pocket, or their right
pocket. If somebody is stealing their money, whether it is
state money, local money, or Federal money, it is their money.
And so, as they are trying to pay for gas, as they are trying
to pay for healthcare, as they are trying to pay for food on
their table, they take anybody who is ill-gotten in their gains
seriously.
In this regard, one of the things I have identified is not
just Medicaid fraud, it is unemployment fraud during the
pandemic. I can put that in real money. In Ohio, we could say
roughly $6 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse occurred in the
pandemic unemployment system. That is the equivalent of $2,000
for each and every Ohio employee, everybody who works in Ohio.
If I took Medicaid into the system, and if we assume Medicaid
is a similar number, roughly between $4 and $6 billion in
waste, fraud, and abuse, you can equivalent that to about
$2,000 for every Ohio employee. That is real money. It is money
that people are paying in state taxes. It is money that they
are paying in local taxes. It is money that certainly they are
paying in Federal taxes.
And in that regard, this is--means a lot to your
constituents, just like it means a lot to Bob and Betty
Buckeye. They expect government to work. And when you have
weaknesses in controls and programs that are designed to put
more people on the rolls without ever asking the question, do
you really need these services, that ultimately you are going
to have less faith in the system. And that is what we see
through the things that we have been identifying.
Mr. Jack. Thank you, Auditor.
Mr. Rosiak, I want to congratulate you on your reporting.
You have done a great service to your country, and people are
going to be reading your reporting for many years to come.
But I am curious, as we wrap up this Task Force today, this
hearing, what are some of the themes you have seen across the
country? I mean, are there specific pockets of the country
where you see this institutional abuse, or what themes have you
seen in your reporting and your investigative work?
Mr. Rosiak. One of the things that I think is important for
Congress to grapple with is that this is almost entirely among
foreign-born people, at least the part that I saw in Columbus.
It was primarily Bhutanese people and Somalian, to some extent,
from Ghana and Sierra Leone. But some of this is being used
systematically by refugees to bring money back to their home
countries. And so, Congress created this program as medical
aids, and there are people that are turned into foreign aid.
And if Congress wants to send money to Bhutan, it needs to do
that above board.
There is a--one family with the name Adhikar--that is a
Bhutanese name--that has been paid $350 million over the last
several years just from Medicaid in Ohio alone. So, that is
just one state, just one Bhutanese name. That is $350 million
in Medicaid. That is 1/10 of the GDP of Bhutan. And what I
found is that all of the Bhutanese advocacy organizations and
charities are tied to, sometimes share an address with, home
healthcare companies. And they are taking that money from
Medicaid and then sending it even to fund public school systems
in foreign countries.
Mr. Jack. You know, I am glad you mentioned that family.
And with the 30 seconds left, I want you to share to this Task
Force and the people watching at home some of the lavish
lifestyle that was promoted by that family. They posted a lot
on social media. Could you share with us some of the things you
found in your reporting?
Mr. Rosiak. Drinking champagne on private jets, private
yachts, you know, wearing Prada clothes, giving birthday gifts
of Range Rovers and Escalades.
Mr. Jack. So, to everyone watching at home, those are your
tax dollars that went to this family that fraudulently
defrauded you, the American people, and your home and your
families of the resources that you deserve.
So, Mr. Chairman, I congratulate you again on the first
hearing of this Task Force, and I congratulate our witnesses.
Thank you for helping us do a better job serving the American
people. Thank you.
Mr. Gill. Thank you.
And I will now recognize myself for 5 minutes for the
purpose of asking questions.
Mr. Rosiak and all the witnesses, thank you all again for
coming here.
Mr. Rosiak, you have identified multiple individuals and
LLCs that you believe engaged in fraud. How many of these had
Somali or Bhutanese or other African origin names?
Mr. Rosiak. One hundred percent.
Mr. Gill. One hundred percent. And how many did you look
through? I mean, that is 100 percent of how many, roughly?
Mr. Rosiak. I looked at the names of hundreds of companies.
I looked more deeply into maybe 50.
Mr. Gill. More deeply into 50, you looked into hundreds of
companies and 100 percent, you are telling me, had names that
were Somali, Bhutanese, or other sort of African origin
derivation.
Mr. Rosiak. Correct. I thought I saw an American, and I was
very excited, but it turned out to be the teenage son of that
money launderer who was actually just a proxy for this woman
from Ghana.
Mr. Gill. What are some of these names that you come
across? Do you hear the same names, or are they different
names?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes, it is funny because this started off, I
was investigating a guy named Robert Acheampong. And then I
found a different scammer named Roberta Acheampong. And I
thought they were related, but they were not. It is just that
is how common it is to scam Medicaid when your name is
Acheampong. And then I did the same thing with a guy named
Alieu Conte who has 30 criminal charges in Cuyahoga County or
in Franklin County and threatened my family, malicious
wounding, crazy stuff. This guy's a career criminal.
And then there was a different guy named Alfred Conte who
was convicted of Medicaid fraud, but Ohio, Franklin County
expunged his record. They let him plead down, and then they
expunged his record. He did not have to pay any money back
except like 500 bucks. And the Ohio Nursing Board let him keep
his license. So, you have got the Contes, the Acheampongs, and
it just seems to be the family business is billing Medicaid.
Mr. Gill. And criminal rings. We did a lot of work
previously this year on Medicaid fraud in Minnesota. There seem
to be a lot of similarities here. Can you tell us in your
investigation, have you found any connections between Ohio
Medicaid fraud and the Somali fraud that we saw in Minnesota?
Mr. Rosiak. Yes, it is the same people. They all have
relatives in both places, and they move back and forth. First
of all, I think there was $130 million in cash that transferred
from the Columbus airport to the Minnesota airport and then to
Somalia. And so, they are moving basically pallet--briefcases
of cash. And the same--there is one guy that had--basically, he
racked up $30,000 in tax debts in Columbus running this daycare
center and not paying his taxes, so then he started a home
healthcare company in Minnesota, billed $35,000 in one month,
and then dissolved the company.
Mr. Gill. So, I just want to be clear. Your testimony is
that there is a large interstate criminal enterprise of Somali
fraudsters that are defrauding the Federal Government in
multiple states of potentially billions of dollars. Is that
your testimony?
Mr. Rosiak. Correct.
Mr. Gill. And can you give us a sense of the scale of this
fraud? We saw it in Minnesota, we are seeing it here, but have
you seen it in other places? Or can you give us a sense for
either dollar values or the number of people involved in your
opinion?
Mr. Rosiak. There are thousands of people involved. I would
say the majority of Bhutanese people are either on Medicaid
home healthcare or are providing Medicaid home healthcare
services. They had recently 15,000 people, this nonprofit
group, this advocacy group, which is tied to--actually funded
by a guy--founded by a home healthcare guy. They had 15,000
Bhutanese people come to this party in Ohio, and they bussed in
all the participants on their Medicaid vans because everybody
there has their own Medicaid company.
And so, I think Bhutanese people are systematically using
Medicaid not only in Ohio but also in Pennsylvania and Kentucky
and New York and in other states where they perceive that they
will pay the family member, and they will pay for non-nursing
services. And those are the two big vulnerabilities.
Mr. Gill. So, it is not just the Somalis, it is also
Bhutanese. It is across multiple states. They are coordinating
with each other. There is a network of foreigners running
criminal fraud rings within our government--within our country,
I should say, defrauding our Federal Government.
Thank you so much for the work that you have done on this.
It has been fantastic reporting, so we really appreciate this.
Senator Antonio, thank you for being here. Has Somali
immigration been good for Ohio?
Ms. Antonio. You know, that is really outside of my purview
of----
Mr. Gill. You are a state Senator.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Information.
Mr. Gill. Would you like to see more----
Ms. Antonio. Well----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Immigration from Somalia?
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. As far as--I am processing your
question, and I am--I have to say that I was almost brought to
tears just now----
Mr. Gill. Seventy-two percent of Somali----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Because the rate----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Immigrants are on welfare.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. The rate and the level of hateful
rhetoric based on----
Mr. Gill. They are defrauding your state----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. False information----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. At an astounding rate, and I think
that----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Is shocking----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Most Ohioans would have a problem--
--
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Is shocking to me----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. With that.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. The lack of even humanity to
group a group of----
Mr. Gill. I think it is inhumane to allow your own state--
--
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. People together----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. To be defrauded----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. I am shocked----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. At astounding rates----
Ms. Antonio. I am shocked and appalled----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Billions of dollars taken out----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. By the behavior here right now--
--
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Of the pockets of working-class
people----
Ms. Antonio. I am----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Going to----
Ms. Antonio. I am shocked----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Criminal fraudsters.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Because----
Mr. Gill. I certainly have a major problem----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. In every--in every----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. With that.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Community, there are----
Mr. Gill. I think that that is an issue----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Good people and there are----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. And I think most Americans agree.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Bad people----
Ms. Simon. Chair, regular order.
Mr. Gill. I agree there are good people----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Want to try to save----
Ms. Simon. I understand we are not supposed to----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. And bad people.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. That every----
Ms. Simon. We are not supposed to disrespect our witnesses.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Single member----
Mr. Gill. With that said, we are out of time----
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Of a group----
Mr. Gill [continuing]. Ms. Antonio.
Ms. Simon. We are not supposed to disrespect our witnesses.
Mr. Gill. We are out of time.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Is somehow a criminal----
Mr. Gill. We have already gone over here.
Ms. Antonio [continuing]. Is shocking to me.
Mr. Gill. We are----
Ms. Antonio. I am shocked and appalled.
Mr. Gill. We are already out of time here.
That said, thank you to the witnesses for taking the time
to come here. It is always fun on the Oversight Committee,
always exciting.
In closing, I want to formally thank you guys for your
testimony today. With that and without objection, all Members
have five legislative days within which to submit materials and
additional written questions for the witnesses, which will be
forwarded to the witnesses.
If there is no further business, without objection, the
Task Force stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the Task Force was adjourned.]
[all]