One of the U.S. Senate’s foremost waste-watchers has her eyes on a loophole that is exploited across every area where the government can be exploited.
If a man owns a company that is caught defrauding the government, he can simply open a company in his wife’s or child’s name — even if they share an address and bank accounts — and the government will gladly pay it for the same service.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who was elected more than a decade ago on a promise to cut the fat from government, said only the government would be naive enough to allow this, and she’s introduced a bill to stop it.
The bill comes after The Daily Wire’s Medicaid Millions series documented how African scammers seem to take a loose view of who is listed as the owner of something, putting companies in various associates’ names as they see fit. Ernst, chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, recognized the pattern — and saw that the potential for stopping fraud by closing the gap extended well beyond Medicaid home health care.
“The No Cash for Cohabitating Kins of Crooks Act is the direct result of Luke Rosiak’s investigation that exposed family fraudsters milking Medicaid in Ohio, which I invited him to share with the Senate committee I chair,” Ernst said. “My own oversight uncovered other scam-ilies and criminal clans across the country who are also living lives of luxury off the loot being pilfered from public programs.”
“This bill will close the fraudsters’ family businesses by prohibiting hooligans living in the same house from getting their hands on taxpayer money,” she said.
Ernst, who is retiring in January, is a former auditor who has persistently delved into the minutiae of the government to find ways to reduce fraud and shrink the federal deficit.
Part 4 of our series documented how Robert Acheampong, a Ghanaian man in Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty to defrauding the government by billing for non-existent elder care. Then his wife, Esther Acheampong, created a Medicaid elder-care business, Omega Healthcare Services, that was paid $5.7 million by the government. (Such home health care businesses are inherently vulnerable to a no-show jobs scam.) The address was the same office suite used by Robert. Robert was released from prison but never paid his restitution, leading the government to issue a lien against him. Meanwhile, it was paying millions to his wife, with whom he lives in an upscale home.
In Part 2, we showed how, according to Medicaid records, True Home Healthcare LLC is owned by Mamusu Kanu — but in actuality, it is co-owned by her husband, Alieu Conteh, who has multiple convictions for giving the government false names, and had his nursing license suspended for repeated trickery. Kanu bills the government as much as $100,000 a month for supposedly helping people; Conteh has been convicted of endangering children and theft. “Yes, I do have a lot of records,” Conteh told the Daily Wire. “My role, I sit in the office.”
A similar dynamic takes place across every aspect of government, such as defense contractors. Her bill would stop it all.
The proposed law says if the owner of a government contractor or service provider has their eligibility terminated as a result of fraud or a criminal conviction, the owner’s spouse and anyone who lives with him “may not enter into a contract with the Federal Government, receive a grant, loan, subaward, or reimbursement from the Federal Government, or enter into any other financial transaction for goods or services paid for in part or full by the Federal Government.”
Our series also exposed Roberta Acheampong, who renamed her janitorial company “One Community Mental Health” and billed the government $8 million. After our story appeared, the government indicted her and her husband, recognizing that husband and wife typically operate as one entity and share the wealth. The couple fled back to Africa together and are now wanted.
In June, the Ohio governor signed into law a comprehensive Medicaid reform package that was designed specifically to address The Daily Wire’s findings — but Medicaid is a joint state/federal program, and vulnerabilities still exist across the country.
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