When government agencies or programs provide help or services to children, for some unexplained reason, they are magically bestowed extra credence and autonomy. As a result, those programs are often given unrestrained freedom in spending money and running their programs. Generally, the programs have very little oversight. However, some agencies have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in funding programs that have benefited children very little…and may have even endangered them. This situation below provides a chilling example.
According to the Los Angeles Times (February 7, 2008), “More than 50 people have been charged in a massive childcare fraud ring operated in part by a federal prison inmate and his wife….” The prisoner-led group was able to do major damage as it “bilked taxpayers out of at least $3 million.”
The clever couple managed to “care for” (or exploit) as many children possible despite the imprisonment. “The convict [was] serving a federal sentence for narcotics trafficking…, [yet, he] received a childcare license from Community Childcare Licensing, a state agency that employed his wife…who operated the childcare facility while he was in prison.” The mastermind’s wife “is charged as co-conspirator in the operation, which received more than $400,000.” And, the fraud didn’t end there. The prisoner was licensed to run six childcare facilities. You know that the system is really up to snuff when a prisoner is able to get a license to run not just one, but six daycares.
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley explained that the “scam involved a former state employee [the prisoner’s wife] who established six bogus childcare facilities under the name Home Sweet Home Daycare, Inc.”
Don’t let the name fool you – “the defendants baited welfare recipients with monetary kickbacks to have them apply for subsidized childcare. In some cases, children who were listed as being cared for by Home Sweet Home did not even live in California.” The parents who received these checks lived “in various locations, including Las Vegas; Tyler, Texas; and Pennsylvania….”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to further foil the system. The conspiring parents “signed attendance sheets for their children and received kickback checks…[of] roughly $300 per child.” If it’s not bad enough that this group collectively scammed $3 million dollars of tax dollars and that a man in prison was licensed to run daycare centers, the topper was the “[o]ne person [who] was charged with 74 [criminal] counts.”
The scams lasted for seven years and “the largest losses were attributed to state programs, which get little oversight….”
After reading the merits of "Home Sweet Home Daycare" and "Grandma and Grandpa’s Daycare," it’s fair to say that there is no effective oversight in this particular program. Although state programs and agencies should not need oversight, this kind of behavior illustrates why oversight and auditing agencies are necessary. Our only confort now is to know that those who swindled children and taxpayers will now be joining their former boss at his "home sweet home" – prison.
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