Federal prosecutors say a glittering fleet of high-end automobiles — a Maserati, a Mercedes, a Bentley and a McLaren among them — was bankrolled by money that was supposed to pay for mental health care for vulnerable children who never received a single session.
Authorities announced this week that two Ohio state workers and two alleged accomplices have been indicted over a Medicaid billing scheme that prosecutors value at roughly $30 million. The behavioral health services the group billed for, officials allege, simply never happened.
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Speaking at a news conference in Ohio, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described the case as one of several recently unsealed prosecutions targeting an estimated $50 million in combined fraud. Another of those cases centered on a COVID-19 relief loan scheme worth about $1.4 million.
According to a source familiar with the probe, all four defendants in the Medicaid case surrendered to authorities earlier in the week. Investigators also impounded 14 vehicles tied to the alleged operation, including the luxury cars later displayed by the Justice Department.
The accused are said to have marketed therapeutic behavioral counseling and psychotherapy to children and young adults taking part in summer camps, church gatherings and recreation programs. Prosecutors allege that every participant was stamped with the same behavioral adjustment disorder diagnosis — a convenient label that opened the door to billing — even though no testing or assessments were ever performed and no actual treatment was provided.
To generate the paperwork needed to bill Medicaid, participants were reportedly asked to fill out “intake packets” and hand over their Medicaid recipient numbers. A required medical evaluation, the source said, was never actually carried out for any of them.
The charges were announced jointly by the Justice Department, Ohio officials and other members of the Trump administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, an initiative led by Vice President JD Vance that aims to tighten enforcement against schemes targeting government programs.
A spokesperson for Vance condemned the alleged conduct, saying it was appalling that scammers had stripped developmental services away from children who needed them while pocketing taxpayer money to buy luxury cars. The spokesperson framed the case as exactly the kind of abuse the task force was created to stop.
The fraud fight has become a political flashpoint, with both parties accusing the other of either enabling waste or failing to address it.
The announcement also fits into a broader federal push. The Justice Department recently stood up a National Fraud Enforcement Division, folding several existing offices — including its health care fraud unit — into one operation. Colin McDonald, the assistant attorney general overseeing it, said his team had signed a new data-sharing deal with Ohio’s secretary of state that grants access to corporate registration records, which he said would help investigators trace the hidden ownership links fraudsters use to disguise control of billing entities.
FBI Director Kash Patel used the same event to roll out what he called a “most wanted fraudsters” list, now posted on the bureau’s website, urging Americans to study the figures accused of draining tens of millions — and in some cases billions — from public coffers.
Task force members also took aim at several Democratic-led states they accused of dragging their feet. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the government was formally decertifying Hawaii’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, calling it one of the weakest-performing units in the country despite substantial federal funding. Hawaii’s unit pushed back, saying it takes Medicaid fraud seriously, that it has mobilized additional staff to review the findings, and that it intends to seek reconsideration of the decision.
Blanche, who is expected to be nominated as permanent attorney general, also singled out Minnesota, disputing Governor Tim Walz’s claim of cooperation and noting that the state is currently suing the federal government.