Vice President JD Vance Holds a State Attorneys General Roundtable on Anti-Fraud Initiatives

[0:16] good thank you all for being here please take a seat okay so what we're going to do is uh make [0:31] some introductory remarks from me from andrew ferguson and from stephen miller and then we'll [0:36] kick out the press and have the real conversation but first let me say thanks to all of you for [0:41] being here very gratified and proud of the fact that we have 15 different state ag offices [0:47] represented here today who are focused on helping us in combating fraud all over our government and [0:53] i'm very very brief here about what what we're trying to do here so one of the things we've [0:59] realized in combating fraud is that the resources of the federal government while vast can be [1:03] supplemented and aided by a lot of the people who know best what's happening in their states [1:07] which is the attorneys general represented here today and they have a lot of legal resources they [1:13] have a lot of prosecutorial resources and of course they have the desire to prevent fraud as much as [1:17] we do and so i appreciate these leaders for being here because we're going to work together state and [1:21] federal government to try to combat fraud i'm particularly gratified here that this is not a [1:25] partisan effort i believe we have a couple of representatives from the attorney generals in [1:31] connecticut and oregon and as i've said repeatedly this is not need to be this should not be a partisan [1:37] effort everybody should care about fraud everybody should care about rooting out fraud everybody should [1:41] care about saving the american taxpayers money and importantly everybody should care about actually [1:45] protecting the programs that only work and are only properly funded if it's not if the money funding [1:52] those programs isn't being stolen by fraudsters so let me just recap for uh the benefit of our friends [1:58] of the media uh in just two months we've exposed billions of dollars in benefits that have been [2:04] stolen from the american people we've referred over 22 billion dollars in fraudulent small business [2:09] loans back to the treasury for collection we deferred more than 1.3 billion dollars in fraudulent [2:14] medicaid reimbursements that were coming from various states particularly california we put a [2:20] six-month hold on enrollments for new hospice and home health care providers because so many of the [2:24] newer hospice providers we're not actually providing hospice services but we're just focused on fraud so [2:30] we're going to cut that out for a little bit and try to get to a place where we can actually certify [2:35] that the people providing hospice services are actually providing those very necessary and important [2:39] services we recover taxpayer funds from the 135 billion dollars stolen after the floodgates were [2:46] open in the immediate aftermath of covid we have found 6.3 billion dollars in suspected fraudulent [2:52] government contracts which were mostly awarded during the last administration and that has stopped [2:57] and finally we've blocked 60 million dollars in student aid fraud that should have gone to young [3:02] people trying to get an education but instead we're going to fraudsters and i think the theme here of the [3:08] anti-fraud task force up to this point has really been that we're protecting two classes of victims [3:13] here we're protecting the american taxpayers who shouldn't have their money stolen by fraudsters [3:17] and of course we're protecting the people who need these services fraud is not a victimless crime this [3:22] is not somebody gets to make some money for violating the law and otherwise it's not a big deal [3:28] this is people who rely on critical services students who rely on student loan services sick people who [3:34] reply who rely on hospice care a number of small businesses who rely on the availability of these [3:41] loans so that they can grow their business and hire people all of these people all of our fellow americans [3:47] have been taken advantage by fraudsters and the task force is here to stop it so without further ado [3:52] let me kick it over to andrew ferguson who's going to talk a little bit about how we're going to work [3:55] with these state attorneys general and it's attorneys general right not attorney generals [4:00] we know that's that's it's very counterintuitive we've got to change this maybe the the group here [4:06] together we've got enough of a critical mass of attorneys generals to change it but andrew attorneys [4:11] general i'm never going to be able to get that right and the media of course is going to make fun [4:15] of me for it andrew over to you thank you thank you mr vice president and welcome to all the state [4:19] attorneys general i'm very grateful you've traveled all this way to discuss one of the most pressing [4:25] problems this nation confronts when i was solicitor general of virginia i served alongside many of you [4:33] and fought against the biden administration to protect our border our religious liberty and our [4:37] right to keep and bear arms and today we're here to talk about another problem that we need to partner [4:41] with you to fight that the obama administration and biden administration made much worse which is [4:47] widespread fraud against our benefits programs our benefits programs and our whole society was designed [4:53] for a high trust people american american people rightly expect that their fellow citizens will [4:59] deal with them and with the government honestly and fairly that's why for up until the last decade [5:04] or so shelves in our grocery stores and our pharmacies were open and readily accessible we weren't [5:10] accustomed to seeing security guards outside of banks or jewelry stores we didn't have to worry about [5:15] organized retail theft or industrial scale scammers of the type you all protect your citizens from every day [5:20] nor did we have to worry about piratical fraudsters rating our benefits program but sadly that is no longer [5:27] true it's become clear that huge groups of people in this country are taking advantage of our long-standing [5:33] culture of trust to enrich themselves at the expense of the american people i think a brief example [5:39] would be illustrative just this weekend i was shopping at a big home improvement store to buy a drill to do [5:45] some home improvement and i had to hit a call button and wait 15 minutes for a sales associate to come [5:50] unlock a steel cage and a steel padlock to get access to a drill it's why deodorant is now locked behind [5:57] plastic windows at pharmacies it's why security guards are seen at every store in america the social [6:04] trust has evaporated and people are taking advantage of it and the same is true with our federal benefits [6:09] programs huge segments of the population have decided to take advantage of this generosity and [6:15] trust of american citizens through deception and fraud and billions and billions of dollars each [6:21] year leave our programs into the hands of pirates fraudsters scammers and gangs who treat american [6:27] generosity as little more than a get quick rich scheme we shouldn't have to live this way american [6:35] people are right to long for a period where we could trust each other but while we are living this [6:39] way the government must act now to protect american citizens and their social programs that is why [6:46] president trump has focused on this issue and that is why the president selected the vice president of [6:50] the united states a man who sits atop the rest of the government to coordinate the entire federal [6:55] government's efforts to stop fraud in all of our benefits programs and that requires us to do two [7:01] things first we have to build protections within the programs to make sure taxpayer dollars don't enter [7:07] the hands of fraudsters that's what the task force under the vice president's leadership has been doing [7:12] for months with our agency partners we've uncovered tens of billions of dollars in fraud and prevented [7:17] billions from going out the door into the pockets of fraudsters for agencies that had robust anti-fraud [7:23] systems that the biden administration turned off the task force and the agencies have turned them back [7:27] on and prevented billions of dollars from leaving the agencies and for the agencies that didn't have [7:32] those systems the task force has come alongside them and harnessed the power of american ai innovation [7:38] to build automated systems to keep that money in the agency it saves thousands of man hours every [7:43] year and billions of dollars that otherwise would exit the agencies and enter the hands of fraudsters [7:49] but the second thing we must do and the reason we brought you all here is that we must restore [7:54] deterrence by finding prosecuting and punishing fraudsters unless fraudsters believe that there will be [8:02] consequences attached with attacking america's benefits programs they will keep doing it our fraud [8:07] detection systems will stop much of it but cannot stop at all the only way to defeat the fraudsters [8:13] is by making sure that they know every single one of them that if they try to commit fraud they will be [8:18] pursued arrested prosecuted and jailed and that is why the department of justice has created the brand [8:24] new national fraud enforcement division to coordinate the federal government's anti-fraud law enforcement [8:29] efforts along with the task force and the homeland security council and this is where you come in the [8:35] the federal government wants to partner with all of you to combat this fraud all of you controlled [8:40] your state medicaid fraud control units all of your medicaid fraud control unit lawyers are on the [8:45] front line of the war against fraud it is extremely important that they be effective ready to fight as [8:51] much fraud as they can and that's why hhs will be conducting a thorough review of all of your medicaid [8:57] fraud control units to ensure that the nearly half billion dollars that the american taxpayers give you [9:03] every year to fight fraud will be used to fight as much fraud as possible now in a moment the head of [9:09] the fraud division assistant attorney general colin mcdonald will explain all of the ways that state [9:14] ags and doj can partner to coordinate and cooperate and put as many fraudsters in jail as possible but [9:21] before i close i just want to remind all of us why this really matters this isn't just about restoring [9:27] social trust in america this is about saving these programs so that your constituents who have paid for [9:34] them can actually use them when they need them fraud is bleeding these programs dry we've seen [9:40] countless of examples in this task force of americans trying to use their benefits benefits they've been [9:46] paying for for decades only to find out that some fraudster has stolen those benefits and they don't [9:51] have avail they're not available to them anymore just last week the department of justice under [9:57] assistant attorney general mcdonald's leadership indicted 15 fraudsters in minnesota [10:02] there the fraud had gotten so bad that a major program designed to protect americans from [10:07] homelessness including veterans had to be shut down it was so riddled with fraud it could not be [10:13] maintained your constituents are american citizens paying for these programs they expect these programs [10:20] to be there when we need when they need them and unless we stop the fraud these programs will not be [10:25] around in their current form for your constituents to use when they hit hard times just as they wanted to [10:31] make them available for their neighbors in the same circumstances so i encourage all of you partner [10:36] with us partner with the department partner with the task force make your medicaid fraud control units [10:42] the elite fraud fighting forces that they are intended to be and with that i'll turn it over to the [10:47] deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor stephen miller thank you and thank you again to the [10:55] vice president for leading this effort for helming this task force for bringing us all together here i think you can [11:01] all agree that this is the fastest in history that a government task force has traveled from creation to [11:11] action your typical lead time is going to be a year of meetings before anything happens and that's if [11:16] you're lucky and within weeks of this task force being established we've seen the largest ever slate [11:21] of indictments recovered funds search warrants raids seizures investigations and new legal actions to [11:30] stop disrupt and prevent fraud what we've learned which is not surprising to those of us who spent [11:35] some time in this area is that fraud is every bit as bad as president trump said it was and even worse [11:42] so in other words everything we found either confirms our worst fears or exceeds them that's the bad news the [11:48] good news is that the best team in government under the leadership of vice president vance has been [11:54] assembled to deal with it and of course one of those those men who you'll hear from second is sitting to [11:59] my right here the associate attorney general for fraud enforcement colin mcdonald but before i yield the [12:06] floor i do want to just touch on one of the points that andrew hit on his remarks all of the systems in [12:12] our country whether you're talking about voting whether you're talking about entitlements whether you're [12:17] talking about welfare benefits were set up based on the honor system they're set up based on the [12:23] idea that you could trust the average person through their own morality to abide by the rules and [12:29] comply with the law and so the way most welfare works in most states and most places is we take your [12:35] word for it if you thought a piece of paper and you say your kids are hungry you are going to get food stamps [12:42] we don't check as a country if you even have kids the fact is basic as that we don't even check if you [12:48] even have children you will just start getting the checks and so what's happened to our country is we [12:55] became a society as you've seen with the somali refugee problem in minnesota where you have a large [13:00] number of people that are not following the honor system they're not playing by the rules they're not [13:05] abiding by our laws and the amount that has been fleeced from us is in the hundreds of billions of [13:10] dollars i believe based on what i've seen and what i've heard is that we could balance the federal [13:16] budget if the only dollars that went out of the treasury went to individuals who are properly lawfully [13:23] correctly eligible to receive them and that ultimately is going to be what we have to do as [13:28] a country in the meantime because of the vice president's leadership you are seeing the most muscular [13:32] robust aggressive dedicated determined and speedy effort to shut down criminal fraud that has not only ever [13:39] occurred in the history of this country but in any developed nation so thank you thank you steven [13:44] colin thank you mr vice president 50 days ago today 50 days ago today acting attorney general todd [13:53] blanche announced the creation of the national fraud enforcement division at the department of justice [13:59] and today 50 days later the fraud division has announced 450 450 major fraud events occurring across [14:08] the country from charges to convictions to sentences we are off to a rapid start to protect you the american [14:17] taxpayer and ensure that your dollars stay where they belong and that is in your pocket when an [14:23] individual's money is stolen that individual takes it personally and does everything they can to recover [14:30] their money this task force under the vice president's leadership we are here to take it personally [14:37] every time someone decides to rob the united states of their money we are here to take it personally [14:43] when someone decides to take money from a program designed to give money food health care to the [14:50] needy the sick and the elderly that is what the fraud division is here to do it's to take it personally [14:56] for you the united states of america when your money is stolen in the last 50 days our work includes the [15:03] unprecedented charges against 15 defendants for medicaid fraud schemes in minnesota it includes charges [15:11] in a 650 million dollar sober homes medicaid fraud scheme in arizona it includes a guilty plea in a 270 [15:20] million dollar medicaid fraud scheme in california those are just a few of the successes of the fraud [15:27] division and the department of justice in the last 50 days and we're only getting started this is just [15:33] the beginning of our fight against fraud and that's where these partners come into play because we [15:40] need your help our division is called the national fraud enforcement division for a reason it's not [15:46] the washington dc uh fraud task force it's the national fraud enforcement division because the fraud [15:51] problem is national and our state partnerships are critical to solving the fraud crisis in our country [15:59] so i'm going to give three things that our our state partners here can do right now today number one [16:06] we heard about the the medicaid fraud control units re-energize and fully mobilize fully maximize [16:14] your state's medicaid fraud control units when we're done we want to rename those into the making [16:21] fraud completely unprofitable unit mfuku these units are your states and really the country's first [16:28] line of defense against medicaid fraud how many active investigations do they have how many are [16:34] ready to be charged if partnered up with doj how many could be charged in the next 90 days under your [16:41] leadership the mufuku units can flourish second join the doj's newly launched special attorneys program [16:51] this program has unlocked 300 million dollars to combat fraud drug trafficking human trafficking and [16:57] crimes committed by aliens in your state this grant program will pay for you to send attorneys to [17:04] join the fraud division or your local u.s attorney's office in addition to paying the full cost of [17:10] prosecutors you send the doj you can receive a 20 premium to boost your justice system staffing and [17:17] capacity third and this is critical bring your state's investigators and data to the table for us to [17:26] bring a case we need documents we need witnesses bring your documents and bring your witnesses to the [17:32] table don't run with your ball and go home come to the table and solve this problem with us your state's [17:40] data including medicaid payment and claims records and the expertise of your investigators are essential [17:46] to uncovering fraud we've developed a successful playbook for exploiting this kind of data to prosecute [17:53] fraudsters next week we'll be on the road to announce a partnership with a state that is leading [18:00] the way in advancing coordination efforts with the fraud division the state ag and the mufuku unit are [18:06] taking aggressive action against fraud the state auditor the state ag and county prosecutors will be [18:12] participating in our special attorney program and the state treasurer and secretary of state are joining [18:18] a statewide benefits fraud task force comprised of federal and state partners which will be chaired [18:23] by the u.s attorney's office and we invite you all to join us in similar efforts it is our mission to [18:30] combat fraud no matter how big no matter how small no matter how hard hold criminals accountable protect [18:37] victims of crime and restore trust in our government come join us in the nationwide fight against fraud [18:44] we are ready to partner with you thank you colin and let me just leave one final thought here before [18:51] we dismiss the press and get down to the business of the meeting so as andrew very ably pointed out [18:57] these are not victimless crimes sometimes the most vulnerable people in our community are the ones who [19:02] suffer when we don't take fraud seriously one of the cases that was was part of colin's series of [19:08] indictments last week in minnesota stood out to me and i think highlights how particularly egregious some of [19:15] these fraudsters can be and it's a a man who was supposed to be providing services to allow elderly [19:23] people to live full and independent lives and what happened instead is that the man who was supposed to [19:28] provide these services reimbursed by the medicaid program was providing nothing no services no help no [19:36] check-ins and the very man the vulnerable elderly man that he was supposed to be protecting and looking [19:43] after was reimbursed by the taxpayer in order to do exactly that that man died and one day before [19:50] he died after months of being neglected by the caretaker who was getting reimbursed by the american [19:56] people one day before he died he submitted his final reimbursement for services he never provided for [20:02] a man he never cared for and that man lived his final moments on this earth neglected while a fraudster got rich [20:12] by providing services that he never actually provided that's what we're trying to stop ladies [20:18] and gentlemen that's what we have to fight back against it's a shame that anything like that happens [20:23] but if it does happen the only way to protect those people and the only way to protect the american taxpayer [20:29] is to ensure that the fraudsters go to prison and that they stop this ridiculous scam on the american [20:35] people so with that i'm looking forward to the meeting thank you for us we're going to talk in [20:40] private now take care guys