The latest Netflix documentary that has viewers glued to their TVs is &#8220;The Crash,&#8221; which tells the story of convicted murderer Mackenzie Shirilla and the deadly 2022 car crash that put her behind bars for 15 years to life.
The 90-minute documentary features in-depth interviews with Shirilla’s parents, Natalie and Steve, and the families of the two young men killed in the crash: Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan.
Prosecutors successfully argued that Shirilla, who was 17 at the time, intentionally crashed the vehicle at roughly 100 mph into a commercial building in Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb outside Cleveland, in the early morning hours of July 31, 2022.
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According to family and friends interviewed in the documentary, Russo had been involved in a &#8220;toxic&#8221; relationship with Shirilla, while Flanagan was a friend who joined the two in the car that fateful morning.
While the Netflix show focuses heavily on the emotional fallout surrounding the case, key details found in reports from Strongsville Police show a more complete picture of Shirilla&#8217;s behavior and state of mind leading up to the crash.
A central question in both the trial and documentary was whether the teenager really meant to crash a car at a high rate of speed into a brick building. While her parents said no, local authorities suggested the parents were aware their daughter was capable of doing harm.
A detective said he was told by a police sergeant that Shirilla’s father, Steve, said she &#8220;intentionally&#8221; drove her vehicle into the building in an attempt to take her own life. Steve also told the sergeant his daughter was suicidal and asked that she remain in the hospital, according to the detective.
At this time, Shirilla had just turned 18 while recovering in the hospital, meaning she was now an adult and could legally check herself out despite her father’s wishes.
Another bombshell in the detective&#8217;s report claims Shirilla voluntarily engaged in sexual acts with other people &#8220;likely in exchange for monetary value.&#8221; Dozens of Snapchat messages and text messages indicate Shirilla requested money in exchange for pictures or meetups.
The documentary includes interviews with several of Shirilla&#8217;s friends who defended her character and insisted she would never hurt anyone. But other witnesses interviewed by police described her driving as reckless and dangerous. One person said she &#8220;sucked at driving.&#8221;
Police records also cite Snapchat videos allegedly recorded by Shirilla in April 2022 showing a vehicle speedometer reaching 93 mph in traffic.
Rosie Graham, one of Shirilla&#8217;s strongest defenders in the documentary, was also cited in police records as telling friends not to get in the car with her.
Shirilla&#8217;s efforts to overturn her conviction on appeal have so far failed. She is up for parole in 2037.

Credit: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

The Disturbing Details Netflix Didn’t Include In ‘The Crash’

Crime

Netflix

News

Ohio

Ohio&#8217;s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Vivek Ramaswamy, addressed Medicaid fraud in the Buckeye State on Tuesday, following <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medicaid-millionaires-how-the-feds-pay-immigrants-billions-to-hang-out-with-their-families">explosive reports</a> from Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
Rosiak&#8217;s findings have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-says-safeguards-exist-to-stop-medicaid-fraud-but-admits-massive-loophole?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ohio+Says+Safeguards+Exist+To+Stop+Medicaid+Fraud%2C+But+Admits+Massive+Loophole">exposed</a> billions of dollars of apparent Medicaid fraud in Ohio, by way of dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own family. Most people who participate in the fraud appear to be foreigners.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s fair to say that, if you had not just reported the facts, as you did a few weeks ago, the people in this room, who are working hard to solve these problems, wouldn&#8217;t have the platform to actually make this a priority for our state,&#8221; Ramaswamy said of Rosiak.
The former presidential candidate won the Ohio Republican primary earlier this month. He&#8217;s facing Democrat nominee Amy Acton in Ohio&#8217;s November gubernatorial election.
&#8220;Healthcare costs are spiraling out of control, &#8230; the healthcare costs that Ohioans are bearing every day,&#8221; he said.
Medicaid is for Americans who temporarily &#8220;need a hand up,&#8221; the Republican said. &#8220;The problem is that, when you have criminals, fraudsters, thieves, claiming money for themselves, it diverts money away from those for whom these programs were intended.&#8221;
Ramaswamy said Medicaid fraud is creating higher healthcare costs for all Ohioans and Americans at large.
&#8220;The easiest solution that I will be able to deliver to you in the first six months of my leadership of this state, will be to crush Medicaid fraud by the billions,&#8221; he declared. &#8220;And to put money back in your pockets, where it belongs.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Crushing Medicaid fraud is one of the simplest ways to make healthcare more affordable. Most healthcare policies force a painful trade-off between cost, access and quality, but this one doesn’t: It takes money from criminals and returns it to the families who play by the rules. <a href="https://t.co/RQJq68lG80">pic.twitter.com/RQJq68lG80</a>
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) <a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/2056753013327630419?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Crushing Medicaid fraud is one of the simplest ways to make healthcare more affordable,&#8221; he <a href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/2056753013327630419">posted</a> to X. &#8220;Most healthcare policies force a painful trade-off between cost, access, and quality, but this one doesn’t: it takes money from criminals and returns it to the families who play by the rules.&#8221;
Rosiak attended the event personally and addressed the crowd, detailing the fraud he&#8217;s uncovered in Ohio. Notably, in the wake of the reporting, Vice President JD Vance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vance-threatens-to-cut-funds-to-states-that-ignore-medicaid-fraud-after-daily-wire-investigation?author=Drew+Berkemeyer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Vance+Threatens+To+Cut+Funds+To+States+That+Ignore+Medicaid+Fraud+After+Daily+Wire+Investigation">warned</a> that the Trump administration will cut off certain federal anti-fraud funding to states that fail to aggressively investigate Medicaid abuse.
Rosiak is set to testify before a Senate panel this week about his findings.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🔴 LIVE: Crushing Fraud. Lowering Healthcare Costs. <a href="https://t.co/3hT2Jwyy2a">https://t.co/3hT2Jwyy2a</a>
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) <a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/2056744991477600390?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-says-safeguards-exist-to-stop-medicaid-fraud-but-admits-massive-loophole?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ohio+Says+Safeguards+Exist+To+Stop+Medicaid+Fraud%2C+But+Admits+Massive+Loophole">Ohio Says Safeguards Exist To Stop Medicaid Fraud, But Admits Massive Loophole</a>

Vivek Ramaswamy, Luke Rosiak

Vivek Vows To Tackle Medicaid Fraud ‘By The Billions’ After Bombshell Daily Wire Investigation

Daily Wire

Fraud

Luke Rosiak

Vivek Ramaswamy

This is part four of &#8220;Medicaid Millions,” a Daily Wire series exposing billions of dollars in dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own relatives.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s Medicaid has paid more than $5 million to a company that says it sends helpers to the homes of the elderly – even though the company’s president had a daycare shut down because of signs it was billing for nonexistent children, and her husband has a felony conviction for billing the government for nonexistent elder services.
The tale raises questions about what, if any, effort the government makes to ensure it isn’t being tricked by Medicaid providers who bill the government vast sums.
Omega Healthcare Services is based in a black, windowless building in Columbus, a city that boasts one of the largest African immigrant populations in the country and also gets the bulk of the state’s Medicaid dollars. When The Daily Wire visited its office during business hours, the door was locked and no one was there.
Yet Omega was <a href="https://npidb.org/organizations/agencies/home-health_251e00000x/1033712484.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">certified</a> to begin receiving Medicaid dollars for &#8220;home health&#8221; in November 2020. According to Ohio spending records, the state paid the firm <a href="https://checkbook.ohio.gov/State/Resources/PayeeSearch.aspx?search=OMEGA%20HEALTHCARE%20SERVICES,%20LLC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$5.7 million</a> beginning in June 2020 and as recently as this month.
<div id="attachment_1094215" style="width: 840px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1094215" class="wp-image-1094215 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM.png" alt="" width="830" height="538" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM.png 830w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM-300x194.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-9.21.49-PM-768x498.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" />The Daily Wire</div>
Who runs this lucrative home health business? Business records <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202014001324" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a> it’s registered to Esther Acheampong, who a decade ago had a daycare in Wisconsin called Kids Campus CDC <a href="https://dcf.wisconsin.gov/wishares/terminated-providers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shut down</a> because it was &#8220;unable to provide investigators with requested attendance records.&#8221;
Sharing the same office is an accounting firm called Scabeda registered to Esther and her husband, Robert Acheampong.
In 2005, Robert Acheampong pleaded guilty to <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599.2.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">felony theft of public money</a> in federal court, after stealing $19,000 from the IRS and a priest in a scheme that mirrors what fraudulent home health companies are known to do.
He falsely claimed to represent a “community development” nonprofit in order to seek a federal grant for &#8220;tax counseling for the elderly.&#8221; He falsely claimed that 25 volunteers filed taxes for 1,000 elderly people, and billed the government for $16,000 in expenses.
He <a href="https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/acc.ohio.gov/Website%20Materials/About%20Us/Compliance/Disciplinary_Spreadsheet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> his accounting license and received four months house arrest and three years of probation. His probation was extended to 2010 after he incurred <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599.3.0_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another felony</a> conviction, for failing to support his own children.
The feds put a $15,000 lien against him, but he simply never paid it – even as his wife, an immigrant from Ghana, found an extraordinarily successful business venture in billing the government for visits to the elderly.
In December 2024, the government <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599/gov.uscourts.ohsd.104599.6.0_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave up</a> on trying to collect what it was owed, saying the &#8220;collection period for the criminal monetary penalties… has expired.&#8221; Shortly prior, records show the Acheampongs <a href="https://delaware-auditor-ohio.manatron.com/Property.aspx?mpropertynumber=318-130-02-007-000&amp;mtab=property&amp;p=31813002007000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bought</a> an upscale home in the tony suburb of Lewis Center.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1093851" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-871x576.jpeg" alt="" width="871" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-871x576.jpeg 871w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-300x198.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-768x508.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-1536x1016.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega-sign-2048x1354.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 871px) 100vw, 871px" /></div>
In April 2025, Ohio <a href="https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/v1751395777/acc.ohio.gov/Board%20Meeting%20Materials/Signed%20Meeting%20Minutes/2025%20Meetings/Apr_25_2025_ABO_Meeting_Minutes_-_signed.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reinstated</a> his accounting license. Scabeda’s sign advertises advice on “advanced taxation” and boasts of securing “$25 MILLION IN LOANS.” Scabeda itself received $25,000 in forgivable <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_8377448904_073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID loans</a>.
Robert Acheampong’s multiple felonies were just one of a slew of red flags that the Ohio Department of Medicaid could have caught when it approved Omega Healthcare Services to operate in the “home health” field, a program known to be highly vulnerable to fraud.
Omega’s LLC paperwork filed in May 2020 didn’t list Robert’s name; it <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202014001324" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed</a> Esther and a white American teenager who lived more than two hours away.
Public records show the teen is the son of Paul G. A. Kasapis, who had just gotten out of federal prison for <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndoh/pr/canton-man-sentenced-more-year-prison-money-laundering-and-tax-violations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax fraud</a> and money laundering convictions tied to an illegal casino he was running out of a bowling alley. The Omega paperwork was filed three days after the teen turned 18. Scabeda’s LLC paperwork was <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202012100706" target="_blank" rel="noopener">updated</a> in the teen’s name on the same day.
The Ohio Department of Medicaid didn’t seem to find it odd that a teenager from Canton was teaming up with a woman from Ghana on a Medicaid business. The Daily Wire did. When we reached out, we got part of the story from his mother.
Debbie Kasapis said Robert Acheampong was the accountant, apparently working despite his revoked license, who filed the fraudulent tax returns concealing millions of dollars for her now ex-husband.
After Paul was released from prison, she found that they were still working together.
&#8220;Something came to the bowling alley for a trucking company, and it had Paul&#8217;s address and a Columbus phone number,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;I dialed the phone number&#8230; it came up Robert Acheampong.&#8221;
She was shocked. Worse, they were using her son&#8217;s name: “I can guarantee you, if my kid&#8217;s name is on it, my kid doesn&#8217;t know&#8230; I don&#8217;t think my son is quite aware of how much his dad is using his name,” Debbie said, adding that she was surprised he was able to get government money.
“It just seems like nobody’s minding the store,” she said of government oversight.
Paul Kasapis owes more than $500,000 in restitution to the IRS, but Debbie suspects he’s hiding money. Some of those assets might be in Robert’s name.
On April 4, 2025, the Kasapises’ divorce was finalized. The next day, a company called Genesis Training Center LLC was created. The <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202509304792" target="_blank" rel="noopener">articles of incorporation</a> were signed only by Robert and Esther Acheampong. But the paperwork was sent to Paul Kasapis’s bowling alley.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1093857" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-1024x514.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="514" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-1024x514.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-300x151.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-768x386.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year-1536x771.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/omega_payments_by_year.jpg 1641w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
In March 2020, a company called <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202008701028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bullet Logistics</a> was created in the name of the then-17-year old son. After the divorce was finalized, it was <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202534601320" target="_blank" rel="noopener">amended</a> to list the elder Kasapis. Scabeda Group’s online account was used to make that change.
In September 2021, Robert and Esther <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202026502922" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created</a> Omega 1 Logistics Inc. Two years later, Kasapis, the convicted money launderer, created <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202325602098" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Omega 1 Log LLC</a>, a name that most people would assume was the same company simply abbreviated, but which was actually a different legal entity.
Asked about the near identical name of Acheampong’s trucking company, the elder Kasapis said, “Why is that weird?” He told The Daily Wire he hired Acheampong to create the bowling alley LLC, but his son was &#8220;not at all&#8221; involved in any businesses, and he didn&#8217;t know why his name appeared.
Esther Acheampong declined to comment. Robert Acheampong did not answer repeated phone calls.
The Acheampongs are tied to several businesses, including a mortgage bank called the <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/201923403164" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Omega Mortgage Banc Corporation</a>, which listed their own then-17-year-old son as a partner.
Their business filings regularly involve individuals billing the government large amounts of money. In October 2020, Robert was named as the sole incorporator of <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/202029602104" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alert Security Agency</a>, but the company was created using a Secretary of State account linked to an address belonging to Dr. Yaw Ayesu-Offei, who founded numerous Medicaid companies, including one that billed $4.7 million.
Scabeda itself was originally <a href="https://bizimage.ohiosos.gov/api/image/pdf/201907902270" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created</a> using the online account of Al Hassan Mansaray, the founder of the High Tech Learning Center, Inc. The learning center’s listed address is an apartment, and its website consisted of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190906053220/http://www.hlcoh.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stock photos</a>, but it got <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_1083949007_073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$30,000</a> in COVID money.
<h3>Cat and mouse</h3>
Ohio spent $1 billion on home health in 2024, paid overwhelmingly with federal money. How many of the 3,700 home health LLCs incorporated in Ohio have similar stories to the Acheampongs?
To illustrate how common it has become for people in some communities to bill the government for such work, the Acheampong home health care business is not even the only multi-million dollar business within its office building. The windowless black box – a different one than the buildings mentioned in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-ohios-home-health-empire-7-buildings-288-medicaid-companies-250-million?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=Investigation&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Inside+Ohio%E2%80%99s+Home+Health+Empire%3A+7+Buildings%2C+288+Medicaid+Companies%2C+%24250+Million">previous installment</a> of this series – is full of companies that bill the government.
Down the hall is All Nation Home Health Care, which collected $7.5 million since 2018. Across the corridor is Confidential Health Services LLC, which fittingly had its windows blacked out. Ohio state records report paying it <a href="https://checkbook.ohio.gov/State/Resources/PayeeSearch.aspx?search=CONFIDENTIAL%20HEALTH%20SERVICES%20LLC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.8 million</a>, and it got $280,000 in <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/search?hash=244f6f780843f8cdd9724ecd6a03b566" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID money</a>.
More than 15% of all “home health” spending in Ohio takes place in four square miles around northeast Columbus, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-investigation-ignites-imminent-crackdown-on-medicaid-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the state auditor. The city houses one of the largest African immigrant communities in the country, many based in the same neighborhood where home health has become so prevalent.
As part of this investigative series on Medicaid spending, The Daily Wire reviewed scores of companies in Columbus and found them often connected to people with red flags in their background that raise questions about waste, fraud, and abuse in the massive government program.
Ohio’s Republican governor Mike DeWine has said that “Ohio has extensive oversight mechanisms in place” to root out fraud and abuse.
Parker Thayer, an investigator for the Capital Research Center, contributed reporting.
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Medicaid Millions Part 4

He Was Convicted For Defrauding The Government. Now Medicaid Pays His Wife Millions.

Medicaid Millionaires

Special Reporting

This article is on Ohio&#8217;s response to “Medicaid Millions,” a Daily Wire series exposing billions of dollars in dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own family.
***
Ohio says it has safeguards in place to cut down on fraud and abuse of Medicaid home health care, but one of the biggest tools to verify care is actually taking place has been rendered useless.
The Daily Wire’s investigation of the multi-billion dollar a year Medicaid industry in Ohio has raised concerns about abuse of a program in which people are paid to visit the homes of elderly poor people and provide “cooking,” “cleaning,” and other non-medical services that even include “companionship.”
In response to those concerns, the Ohio Department of Medicaid said it is “aware of concerns involving home health care activity” in Columbus, and “has been actively investigating these matters since prior to the publication of The Daily Wire series.” It touted an “extensive set of safeguards&#8221; in place to ensure aides are actually going to homes.
The key component is &#8220;mandatory electronic visit verification capturing date, time, and service location,&#8221; a feature that is required by federal law. But Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s administration inserted massive loopholes including making the verification optional.
The 21st Century Cures Act, passed by Congress in 2016, <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/home-community-based-services/home-community-based-services-guidance-additional-resources/electronic-visit-verification" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mandated</a> that states require electronic visit verification, or EVV, by January 2020 for the riskiest category of “personal services” – non-medical services like cooking and cleaning – and by January 2023 for in-home nursing. Yet for years, Ohio simply paid providers even if they didn’t submit any electronic evidence, according to a <a href="https://ohioauditor.gov/Auditsearch/Reports/2024/117_Electronic_Visit_Verification_Report_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 audit</a> by Auditor of State Keith Faber.
Faber’s audit, examining payments in 2022, found that 44% of personal services claims had no electronic verification. The situation was similar for home nursing. “This resulted in approximately $1.1 billion in claims not supported by an EVV visit,&#8221; the audit found.
The audit said if the state has an electronic validation system, then using it should be a &#8220;condition of payment.&#8221; A spokeswoman for the Ohio Medicaid Department, Stephanie O’Grady, told The Daily Wire that this was done in March 2025.
But shortly before EVV was made mandatory, it was neutered as a fraud prevention tool. The most important feature – GPS coordinates captured by an electronic device – was made optional and defaulted to “off.”
“Effective July 1, 2024, GPS functionality within any EVV application or device may only be activated with the signed consent of the individual receiving services — valid for one year and revocable at any time,” O’Grady said. “The approach allows the person receiving care to make an informed decision related to privacy protections for individuals receiving home and community-based services.”
O&#8217;Grady disclosed to The Daily Wire that GPS is turned off for nearly half of home visits, with reliable coordinates present in only 53% of electronic records.
The patient was also supposed to sign their name to show that the patient and aide were actually together, but that, too, was removed in 2024, Faber’s audit flagged.
Earlier this year, Ohio’s attorney general Dave Yost, whose office is tasked with policing Medicaid fraud, testified that the rollback of safeguards made his job difficult.
“Until about a year ago [GPS] was required, now it&#8217;s optional,” he <a href="https://www.ohiochannel.org/programs/ohio-house-medicaid-committee-3-24-2026-joint-meeting-of-medicaid-committees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told legislators in March</a>. “I do not know for the life of me why it went away, but I respectfully ask you to put in statute where no vendor, no bureaucrat can object to legitimate monitoring.”
“While we had the GPS, you could see where the person was, they had to drive to the house of the person they were providing services for, you could see how long they were there. That record makes it much harder to do the fake billing where they say they went to five houses but really sat at home,” he said.
Ohio state lawmaker Josh Williams, a Republican from Toledo, says there was no reason why the recipient of a government service would object, or be able to object, to the government verifying that the person being paid by the government to help him actually showed up.
“It seems like the DeWine administration continues to protect the bad actors. And I&#8217;m frustrated as a legislator, I&#8217;m frustrated as a taxpayer. I&#8217;m frustrated because I don&#8217;t think we should be providing protection for these individuals,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire. “We&#8217;re not checking any of your personal information. We&#8217;re making sure that the person that is assigned to your case is actually going to your residence.&#8221;
“You want to be a Medicaid provider in the state of Ohio for home health care aid, we should be able to track your location data during the times in which you&#8217;re asking for payment,” he added.
He said that a common fraud scheme involves a patient and caregiver colluding to have the government pay for nonexistent work — in which case the patient could now simply refuse GPS verification of the caregiver’s presence.
“You have family members going to provide services to an elderly individual, and on many occasions, they&#8217;re not even showing up, but they&#8217;re getting paid. That family member is not going to report their nephew or their cousin or their niece for not showing up. That&#8217;s part of a widespread, broad fraud that we&#8217;re seeing,” he said.
Williams has introduced a <a href="https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb795" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> to make GPS mandatory again. But even then, it appears that GPS data could easily be faked.
Faber’s audit said that Ohio spent $146 million contracting with Sandata, a company that produces EVV devices and software, resulting in Ohio providers being able to use Sandata’s software for free. Nonetheless, the state allows home care providers to use their <a href="https://medicaid.ohio.gov/resources-for-providers/special-programs-and-initiatives/electronic-visit-verification" target="_blank" rel="noopener">own software</a> instead, potentially including software that simply transmits fake coordinates rather than ones coming straight from a mobile device’s sensors.
The vulnerabilities don’t end there. Ohio also permits the electronic records to be manually adjusted. In 2022, “34 percent of all EVV entries were manually adjusted,” Faber’s audit found.
Additionally, ten percent of aides are exempt from EVV because they live with the patient, often a family member, O’Grady said.
Yost, who resigned as attorney general last week for a job in the private sector, said in his testimony that in addition to DeWine’s rules, Ohio laws also make it difficult to prove and punish Medicaid fraud.
The attorney general’s Medicaid fraud unit isn’t authorized to use subpoenas to gather information, he said. If someone is actually investigated, charged, and convicted, their punishment will be light because Medicaid fraud is “capped as being less serious than other theft, as a third degree felony,” he said.
<h3>Red state blues</h3>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1092743" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-1024x480.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="480" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-1024x480.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-300x141.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-768x360.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-1536x720.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/ohio-hhc-chart-2048x959.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
The Medicaid scandal in Ohio has exploded under an all-Republican leadership. In fact, the historical dollar amounts in this series, relying on data through 2024, likely understate the ongoing cost, because DeWine drastically increased the pay rate for home health providers in 2024.
The increases took effect as “part of Governor Mike DeWine’s commitment to making sure every Ohioan receives quality care and that providers receive support to continue delivering the highest level of care for Ohio’s residents,” a press release <a href="https://ohiohcbs.pcgus.com/news/important-information-fee-for-service-reimbursement-rate-increases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “The rate increases are historic in nature, totaling approximately $3.4 billion per year,” including home health and other Medicaid spending.
DeWine has been accused of being soft on fraud, particularly after a spokesman once called fraud in the state&#8217;s Somali hotspots “the <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/01/14/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-responds-to-fraud-concerns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cost of doing business</a>.”
Last week, Vivek Ramaswamy secured the Republican nomination to replace DeWine next year. Responding to The Daily Wire’s reporting, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMXQjWxVQTw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that states have “turned a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMXQjWxVQTw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blind eye</a> to this level of rampant fraud” despite the fact that “in a modern era of AI, you have a toolkit that allows you to detect aberrant abnormalities.”
That’s partly because of an incentive issue with how Medicaid is set up, he said. Medicaid is run by the states, but is largely paid for by the federal government. That means it’s up to states to stop waste and fraud, but they don’t always have a strong financial motivation to do so, because it would decrease federal dollars to the state.
Ohio’s Medicaid program is set to be in the hole <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/ohio-medicaid-projected-to-lose-33b-over-next-decade/article_2f369df5-0a08-4819-a490-ac1b46612b95.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$33 billion</a> over the next few years due to federal changes aimed at stopping states from gaming the numbers to offload even more of the burden to the feds.
Vice President <a href="https://x.com/JDVance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JD Vance</a>, also from Ohio, said in response to The Daily Wire’s series: “I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate.”
Ramaswamy noted that there is “uppercase F fraud, and also lowercase F fraud, which may be technically legal but doesn’t comport with anyone’s sense of who should get these dollars.” Those cases could necessitate changes in law or policy to stop the bleeding.
Aggressive Medicaid “waiver” programs such as those the feds have allowed Minnesota and Ohio to run are particularly vulnerable to abuse, and have exploded in usage. Medicaid takes up nearly half of Ohio’s general revenue fund, and spending has doubled in recent years.
Yet even as the red flags are hard to ignore — the percentage of people claiming to be autistic is exploding the dubious levels, for example — there has been aggressive, almost blatant pushback against using common and affordable technology to provide basic safeguards.
Nationally, a group called “<a href="https://www.stopevv.com/media-toolkit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stop EVV</a>” launched a “media toolkit” showing pictures of disabled people holding signs with messages like, “I’M THE EMPLOYER. IT IS MY RIGHT TO SCHEDULE, SUPERVISE &amp; SIGN MY EMPLOYEE’S TIMESHEET.” The site pictured a bald eagle and American flag and called stopping GPS tracking a “civil rights” issue.
Ohio’s Department of Medicaid says that “all allegations of fraud are investigated,” and further that many of the companies identified by The Daily Wire “are subject to ongoing investigation” by the state. It said it is unable to comment on those investigations.
But Faber, the auditor — who is running for attorney general — has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-investigation-ignites-imminent-crackdown-on-medicaid-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warning</a> of abuse that mirrors The Daily Wire’s findings. He recently told the legislature that 38% of Ohio home health spending was in Franklin County, and that of that, 41% – or more than 15% of all home health care spending in the state — is spent in a four mile radius.
Faber’s audit found that in 2022, there were 2,479 home health companies in Ohio, which were paid $1.8 billion. That means 10% of all home health companies in the state are located in the seven buildings owned by one landlord in Columbus&#8217;s Somali neighborhood, which was highlighted in our <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-ohios-home-health-empire-7-buildings-288-medicaid-companies-250-million">second installment</a>.
The data analyzed by the Daily Wire, finding a quarter billion dollars to companies in seven buildings, covered from 2018 to 2024. It understates the total because data for smaller companies is not available for privacy reasons.
Parker Thayer, an investigator for the Capital Research Center, contributed reporting.
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J.D. Vance/Mike DeWine

Ohio Says Safeguards Exist To Stop Medicaid Fraud, But Admits Massive Loophole

J.D. Vance

Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that uncovering fraud in the federal government was like “fishing in a barrel with dynamite.” His comment came after The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medicaid-millionaires-how-the-feds-pay-immigrants-billions-to-hang-out-with-their-families?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=DW+Investigation+Reveals+One+Of+The+Biggest+Government+Waste+Scandals+Hiding+In+Plain+Sight">reported</a> Monday that Ohio was doling out federal Medicaid dollars for people to spend time with their families. 
Vance, who is heading up the President Donald Trump’s Fraud Task Force, said he is surprised every week to find what kind of fraud his team was discovering. 
“Finding fraud in the federal government, it&#8217;s kind of like fishing in a barrel with dynamite. Every week, I get a report for the task force,” Vance said during an appearance in Iowa. “I am shocked every single day by the things that we find.”
Vance previously promised on Monday that the Fraud Task Force would dig into The Daily Wire’s reporting on Medicaid fraud in his home state. 
“These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important. I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate,” he wrote on X, sharing a thread from Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak detailing the uncovered fraud.
Rosiak reported Monday that Ohio spent a billion dollars on home health care in 2024, the last year for which data is available. What these funds went toward was difficult to verify because they often went toward “home health care” performed in private residences by family members of those getting the care.
During his speech in Iowa, Vance said that the Trump administration was working to go after the fraudsters who have grown rich by defrauding the American taxpayer. 
“We had let fraud become so rampant in this country that people were able to get rich, not by creating something amazing, not by employing something, not by building something beautiful with their hands,” Vance said. “They were able to get rich by defrauding every single person in this room.”
The vice president said Somali fraudsters in Minneapolis had taken advantage of a program intended to help autistic children and discussed rampant Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) waste uncovered by Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins. 
He said that Rollins had found 355,000 people receiving double SNAP benefits and 186,000 dead people on SNAP. 
“I actually think that we should take food stamps away from dead people,” Vance said. “I&#8217;m guilty of that. I think that&#8217;s a reasonable thing.”
The fight over SNAP fraud has now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/no-more-food-stamps-for-millionaires-the-fight-over-snap-fraud-heads-to-the-states">headed to the states</a> where lawmakers are attempting to eliminate a loophole called broad-based categorical eligibility which allows people to qualify for SNAP without asset testing.

Vice President JD Vance Speaks At A Manufacturing Facility In Des Moines, Iowa

JD Vance Ramps Up ‘Dynamite’ Fraud Crackdown After DW Investigation Exposes Barrel Of Abuse

Iowa

JD Vance

Medicaid

Vivek Ramaswamy said he would &#8220;aggressively&#8221; prosecute the kind of fraud uncovered by The Daily Wire if elected governor of Ohio, saying lawmakers had too long “turned a blind eye” to government waste.
Ramaswamy told Daily Wire co-founder <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-ep-2419?elementPosition=2&amp;row=5&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">Ben Shapiro</a> on Tuesday that he would crack down on rampant fraud in Ohio subsidized by taxpayer dollars. His comments came after Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/medicaid-millionaires-how-the-feds-pay-immigrants-billions-to-hang-out-with-their-families?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=DW+Investigation+Reveals+One+Of+The+Biggest+Government+Waste+Scandals+Hiding+In+Plain+Sight">published a story</a> revealing that Ohio was paying people under the guise of “home healthcare” to do “chores” like cooking and cleaning for their own families, paid for by Medicaid. 
“Daily Wire’s reporting was really intriguing to me. I wish I could say that it was a shock compared to what I hear on the ground,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was not a shock, but I appreciate you putting a national spotlight on it in my own home state.”
“When I am in power, hopefully if we’re elected, we&#8217;re not going to sweep it under the rug. We&#8217;ve got to prosecute aggressively,” Ramaswamy added.
Ramaswamy made the comments as Republicans head to the polls Tuesday to choose their gubernatorial nominee. He is widely expected to win the Republican nomination, with most polls showing him with a commanding lead. 
Rosiak reported Monday that Ohio spent a billion dollars on home health care in 2024, the last year for which data is available. What these funds went toward was difficult to verify because they often went toward &#8220;home health care&#8221; performed in private residences by family members of those getting the care. 
To address the apparent widespread fraud, Ramaswamy said he would start by enforcing the laws already on the books. 
“I think that the reality is all states, including Ohio, have turned a blind eye to this level of rampant fraud, of the welfare system broadly, including Medicaid,” he told Shapiro. “And it starts, Ben, with enforcing the laws that are already on the books.”
He said that the prosecutions would help create deterrence for people to stop bilking taxpayers. 
“It&#8217;s not really even bilking the government so much as bilking the taxpayer, the ordinary law-abiding American, the ordinary law-abiding Ohioan.  That&#8217;s not OK. And we have to send that deterrent signal,” he said. 
Part of the problem is that the federal government currently reimburses the states for welfare expenses, which Ramaswamy said creates a flawed incentive structure for local state politicians to keep doling out benefits while the federal government handles the burden. Ramaswamy said he would work with the Trump administration to correct this incentive structure. 
“This is doable,” he said. “But it does require a leader at the top who&#8217;s willing to act with a spine decisively.”

Donald Trump Campaigns For President Across Pennsylvania

Ramaswamy Says He Will ‘Aggressively’ Prosecute Kind Of Fraud Uncovered By Daily Wire

Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber said Tuesday that officials are preparing to move on potential Medicaid fraud uncovered by a Daily Wire investigation.
Faber, a Republican running for state attorney general, said in an interview with radio host Bruce Hooley that he was ready to make the transition from uncovering fraud to prosecuting those responsible for it — and that The Daily Wire&#8217;s recent investigation had given him a great place to look deeper.
Faber and Hooley discussed the investigation by The Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak and said they would certainly not be surprised to find a fair amount of fraud in a massive government program like Medicaid. Because the state is responsible for determining who is eligible for benefits at the federal level, all that is necessary for fraud and abuse is for someone not to look too closely at what&#8217;s happening at the bottom.
Still, Faber said that an investigation was clearly warranted — and that Vice President JD Vance&#8217;s promise to get his federal task force involved would open up much broader access to data.
The next step, Faber said, is a full audit to get comparative data from around the state and line up the different counties side by side — and if there were anomalies between counties that should show similar use of those programs, they would know where to dig deeper.
&#8220;If you have a program, for example, that I testified six weeks ago in front of the Medicaid Joint Committee, that literally is a $1.6 billion program, 38% of of that money is spent in Franklin County — and by demographics, Cuyahoga County is 16%, which should be about the same as Franklin County, you&#8217;re saying something&#8217;s unusual, that&#8217;s an anomaly in the data,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;And then if you find that 40% of that 38% — or more than $200 million — is spent in two zip codes, you&#8217;ve got something going on in those two zip codes that is not happening throughout the rest of the state with a huge over-utilization of these programs.&#8221;
Rosiak&#8217;s report, published on Monday, detailed dozens of &#8220;home health&#8221; companies operating out of a single, small building in Columbus. While there are legitimate uses for home health — to lower costs by helping patients avoid nursing homes — the services offered by such companies open the door for family members to receive a federal paycheck for providing simple home services or even just companionship to an older relative. Fraud, as Rosiak noted, is nearly impossible to prove because the services — if provided at all — are provided in private residences.
Vance responded to the report immediately, saying in an <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/2051391872623362379">X post</a> that he planned to have his Fraud Task Force review the findings and begin prosecuting anyone found to have defrauded the government.
&#8220;These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important. I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate,&#8221; he said.
<h3>LISTEN @7:15:</h3>
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Guest Keith Faber" src="https://omny.fm/shows/thebrucehooleyshow/guest-keith-faber/embed?media=Audio&amp;size=Wide" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Mike DeWine Attends Election Night In Columbus

Daily Wire Investigation Ignites Imminent Crackdown On Medicaid Fraud

Authorities Ready To Move On Medicaid Fraud Uncovered By Daily Wire Investigation

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Radio

On Monday, Daily Wire reported on the massive alleged fraud plaguing Ohio&#8217;s Medicaid program. Our investigative team has uncovered shocking facts surrounding alleged fraud and what appear to be hundreds of shell companies bilking taxpayers out of perhaps billions of dollars. And Vice President JD Vance has already vowed to track it all down, putting out a tweet pledging that he would look into what was going on, writing, “I&#8217;m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate.”
So we are already getting action here at Daily Wire. This is why Daily Wire exists — not just to entertain you, but to change the world in better ways. Luke Rosiak, who is our senior investigative reporter, has presented the second part of his large-scale investigative series, reporting on the extent of Medicaid fraud in Ohio.
He points out that there are seven buildings along East Dublin Granville Road in Columbus, Ohio, that are filled with hundreds of offices, which are owned by a company called Cordoba Real Estate. Almost every tenant in the building bills Medicaid as a home health care business that provides low-skilled, usually non-medical, care to elderly or disabled people.
Basically, it seems very much like what Nick Shirley was uncovering in Minnesota. Essentially, we have gigantic buildings that are filled with “home health care providers,” but completely empty of people. Daily Wire has video of Luke Rosiak walking through the halls in an empty office building in Ohio, where presumably millions of dollars are flooding through.
This, of course, is a scam. According to Luke&#8217;s reporting, the Cordova-owned buildings in Columbus have 288 businesses registered with Medicaid. Together, they charge taxpayers more than a quarter of $1 billion between 2018 and 2024. In a city where there are only about 6,200 people who are 75 or older on Medicaid. Apparently, at one address, there are 80 companies that collectively billed at least $73 million to Medicaid and received $23 million from the state of Ohio.
Again, shocking levels of what appear to be alleged fraud. And again, Luke is talking to one of the employees at Cordova Road, who admits the government basically pays people to take care of their own family in the Cordova Office building at 1425 East Dublin Granville Road.
Daily Wire finally located a business suite with somebody in it, GC Home Health Care, LLC. When asked how they recruit employees, the response was, “Employees and patients come as a package.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-ep-2419?elementPosition=2&amp;row=5&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Seventy percent of the employees are just being paid to spend time with their own family members. The “patient” has someone in their family who has the qualifications to be an aide, so they just come together. They acquire approval from a doctor vouching for the elder’s need for personal services.
The family member of that elderly person isn&#8217;t set up to build Medicaid, so a company stands in the middle. “I mean, we&#8217;re just taking a small cut because, you know, they pay us and then we pay them for the hour,” the employee says. The number of hours depends on a doctor&#8217;s recommendation, but it&#8217;s often an hour a day. The employee continues, “Why — do you expect them to take time off work just to take care of [a family member]?”
So, there has to be some sort of benefit. Rosiak asks him why people wouldn&#8217;t simply help their aging parents with basic tasks out of human decency. The answer: “The government can pay you to do it. I mean, people see that as lucrative.” 
Unbelievable stuff. Are you, as a taxpayer, willing to subsidize people to take care of their own aging parents?
It&#8217;s crazy. Rosiak reports that there is one home health care service called Omega, which charged taxpayers $11 million between December 2017 and October 2024. Omega was incorporated in 2011 by Mohamud Jama, a Democratic politician. Jama founded a newspaper called the Somali Post, and also a Somali coffeehouse, and has been affiliated with the Somali Education Resource Center, which received $6 million in federal aid in 2023, all on top of raising nine kids and working as an engineer.
When he ran for state Senate as a Democrat in 2024, that home health care business was not even mentioned in his profile. Great. 
We also have to, as taxpayers, subsidize people running for the state legislature as they clear millions of dollars in cash.

blueprint

How Was The Medicaid Millionaires Machine Built? DW Investigates The Blueprint For Billions

Ben Shapiro

Welfare

Ohio-Somali-v4

Inside Ohio’s Home Health Empire: 7 Buildings, 288 Medicaid Companies, $250 Million

DOGE

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just before the Department of Government Efficiency closed its doors, it made a quiet move that may end up as its most lasting impact on the federal deficit.
DOGE <a href="https://opendata.hhs.gov/datasets/medicaid-provider-spending/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published a massive trove of data</a> in February that, for the first time, lets the public see what companies are billing Medicaid for. For decades, the payouts have been shrouded in secrecy. One of the largest government programs was a black box.
I’ve spent the past two months diving into the numbers. What I found was the most blatant waste of federal dollars that I have encountered in my two decades as an investigative reporter.
This is the first part of &#8220;Medicaid Millions,” a Daily Wire series exposing billions of dollars in dubious “personal services” payments where people are paid to spend time with their own family.
I set my sights on Ohio, which like Minnesota, has been granted <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/section-1115-demo/demonstration-and-waiver-list/Waiver-Descript-Factsheet/OH#0198" target="_blank" rel="noopener">waivers</a> to expand Medicaid well beyond its original purpose. Under the guise of health care, Ohio pays people to go to Medicaid beneficiaries’ homes to perform “homemaking” and “chores” like cooking and cleaning. The people performing these “personal services” tasks don’t even have to be health care workers — and in many cases, are actually relatives of the Medicaid recipient.
According to a Daily Wire data analysis, Ohio spent a billion dollars on home health care in 2024, the last year for which data is available.
Since the services are performed inside private residences, there is no way to know whether the workers went at all, or what they&#8217;re actually doing in exchange for taxpayer funds. An infinite number of small black boxes inside a black box. Multiple signs said the service provided, and billed to the government, was sometimes just “companionship &amp; conversation.”
As people have realized the United States government will pay them to hang out with their own families, northeast Columbus has seen its economy replaced by businesses that bill Medicaid. And Columbus, a city with the second largest Somali population in the country, has become, on the surface, the most unhealthy city on the planet.
“Well if the government is going to pay you to do it,” one home health operator told me. “People see it as lucrative, so they just jump on it.”
The new welfare queens aren’t the recipients whose low incomes qualify them for poverty programs. They’re the companies getting rich off them.
<div id="attachment_1088861" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1088861" class="wp-image-1088861" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/billboard-1024x548.jpg" alt="A billboard in Columbus / Luke Rosiak" width="630" height="337" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/billboard-1024x548.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/billboard-300x161.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/billboard-768x411.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/billboard-1536x823.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/billboard.jpg 1813w" sizes=" (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" />A billboard in Columbus / Luke Rosiak</div>
Driving down Cleveland Avenue, in less than 40 seconds, you come across endless home health companies. Capital Home Health; Continental Home Health; Dynamic Home Healthcare; Ohio Senior Home Healthcare. Entire buildings throughout the city are filled entirely with what appear to be identical businesses.
The enormous complex pictured below is 6161 Busch Boulevard. Its lack of windows would be a problem for most office buildings, but there is almost no one in this one. What’s inside is 94 different companies signed up to bill Medicaid, each with a tiny office, often marked with a sheet of paper proclaiming some generic company name ending in “Home Health LLC” — and sometimes another piece of paper claiming the employees had just stepped out for a break.
This building alone billed taxpayers $66 million in the span of a few years, the records show.
<div id="attachment_1088839" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1088839" class="wp-image-1088839" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/unnamed-1.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="473" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/unnamed-1.jpg 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/unnamed-1-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" />Luke Rosiak / The Daily Wire</div>
Pick the owner of a Columbus home health care company at random and look him up in public records, and you are likely to go down an endless rabbit hole: years of unpaid taxes and debts, sometimes criminal records, and an astonishing number of LLCs created in other industries, as if the millions they make from Medicaid are just a side gig.
We went down several of those rabbit holes. In the coming days, you&#8217;ll meet:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A politician who founded an $11 million home health care company that he appeared to run part-time — without even mentioning it in his political biography — who funded his campaign with donations from other home health care owners.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A woman who reinvented her janitorial LLC as a &#8220;health&#8221; provider, then billed Medicaid nearly $100,000 the first month.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A landlord who bought airplanes after renting space to hundreds of home health care companies that billed Medicaid a quarter of a billion dollars.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A million-dollar Medicaid business owned by a couple with repeated fraud, violence, and theft convictions.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A man who went to prison for Medicaid fraud but told the government he was too broke to pay restitution, while his neighbors and associates preside over a poverty-program empire.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">An accountant who lost his license for stealing public funds, then opened a $7 million home health company using the address of a convicted money launderer&#8217;s teenage son.</li>
</ul>
These are not business geniuses, nor even people with any training or specialty in the health field. They have often failed at a variety of businesses before suddenly becoming millionaires in home health care.
Sometimes a company will have a full roster of clients in its very first month, making one wonder where the clients come from. The companies don’t have websites or appear to advertise. They can’t stand out from their thousands of rivals based on price, unless they pay kickbacks, because the government pays the same to everyone.
Nearly every owner of home health care companies in Columbus appears to be foreign. They live in a parallel society, where every associate in public records also has a foreign name, and all their business transactions are conducted with other foreigners.
When we asked one what home health care companies did, one man threatened: “Journalists? Who cares? Do you guys pay my bills? I’m going to tell everybody you guys are racist.”
The government cannot be meaningfully monitoring all the people it writes million-dollar checks to in Columbus. They all share combinations of just a few names, like Ahmed Mohamed and Mohamed Ahmed. Documents reviewed by The Daily Wire show individuals will spell their own name multiple different ways within a single document. And many of them list their birthday as January 1, because their birthdates are unknown.
The business model is simple: a 40-year-old Somali immigrant gets paid for spending time with, and maybe cooking for, his own 65-year-old mother. The middleman is one of thousands of &#8220;home health&#8221; firms that have the “NPI” number necessary to bill Medicaid.
The 40-year-old becomes an &#8220;employee&#8221; of that company, but has no clients other than his mother. There is no way to verify whether he actually even provided the &#8220;services&#8221; — unless his own mother is willing to testify against him.
Two months. Millions of documents. A full investigative team. That&#8217;s what this story required. Most outlets can&#8217;t afford work like this, which is why it doesn&#8217;t happen. We&#8217;ve chosen to make it happen. <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/fight/?utm_campaign=missional&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=article&amp;utm_content=medicaid">Support more of it by becoming a member of Daily Wire.</a>
This poverty program is different from things like food stamps, because it has no monetary cap and its extent is decided not by politicians, but by any doctor willing to sign a form saying you could use some help around the house. It only takes one doctor who will say yes to churn out enough forms to bankrupt a state.
For years, efforts to rein in waste have nibbled around the edges, shaving off a million here and a million there, while skeptics — and liberals — argued that the cost-cutting exercise was pointless because the lion’s share of federal spending was locked up in “non-discretionary” spending like health care.
The implication was that there was no waste in that category, and nothing that could be done about it, even as the nation careened towards insolvency. That premise couldn’t be more wrong.
This blatant waste happened within miles of the Ohio state capitol, where Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, and his appointees run the state. In an age of artificial intelligence, the Medicaid system has seemed disinterested in even the most obvious red flags. Perhaps that’s because it’s largely run by states, but with half or more of the bill being footed by federal taxpayers.
The Trump administration is now turning its sights to Medicaid fraud with a task force led by Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Vice President JD Vance. They may want to start with Vance’s home state.
Parker Thayer, an investigator for the Capital Research Center, contributed to this report.
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DW Investigation Reveals One Of The Biggest Government Waste Scandals Hiding In Plain Sight

A leftist&#8217;s attempt to get on the ballot in Ohio as a Republican was shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.
Samuel Ronan, who previously ran for chair of the Democratic National Committee, filed to run for Ohio&#8217;s 15th Congressional District and challenge Republican Rep. Mike Carey in the GOP primary. Ronan admitted his candidacy was part of a ploy to run Democrats in &#8220;deep red&#8221; districts, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-blocks-candidate-after-alleged-gop-infiltration-scheme-exposed?lid=h4ig0qgow6sl">reported</a>.
In one social media post, Ronan <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/supreme-court-keeps-former-dnc-candidate-off-ohio-gop-primary-ballot/">wrote</a>, “Leftists need to infiltrate Republican spaces and primary them.”
The leftist candidate was tossed from the GOP primary ballot by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who called Ronan&#8217;s attempt to run as a Republican &#8220;political transgenderism.&#8221; Chief U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison upheld LaRose&#8217;s decision, saying that Ronan&#8217;s declaration to run as a Republican was fraudulent. The Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case on Thursday, with none of the justices dissenting from the decision to keep the lower court&#8217;s order in place.
&#8220;This is political transgenderism, and it’s a longstanding problem with Ohio’s primary process,&#8221; LaRose <a href="https://x.com/FrankLaRose/status/2042371793080529073">said</a>. &#8220;We had to go all the way to the nation’s highest court to fight a blatant attempt by a self-declared Democrat to hijack a Republican primary contest.&#8221;
When he declared to run as a Republican, Ronan also promised to abide by the Republican Party&#8217;s principles, and his candidacy was certified by the Franklin County Board of Elections in February. Ohio Republican voter Mark Schare, however, noticed that Ronan had publicly expressed his intention to run in the GOP primary while still pushing leftist views and filed a protest with the elections board.
LaRose stepped in to toss Ronan off the ballot after the Franklin County Board of Elections tied along party lines in a vote to decide whether Ronan could stay on the ballot.
“As required by Ohio law, Ronan declared that he was ‘a member of the Republican Party’ and if elected he would ‘support and abide by the principles enunciated by the Republican Party,’&#8221; LaRose wrote. &#8220;But even after signing this form, Ronan continued to push his vision that Democrats like himself should primary Republicans in deep-red districts to ‘get a foot in the door.’”
Ronan denied that his candidacy was &#8220;some kind of trick&#8221; and mentioned that Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump were also former Democrats. Ronan&#8217;s attorney claimed that Rep. Carey was allowed to &#8220;surreptitiously sabotage Ronan’s ballot access by secretly enlisting the Ohio Republican Party to protest Ronan.” The attorney also argued that one of the election board members should have recused herself since she is a top official in the Ohio Republican Party.
LaRose called for Ohio to adopt a closed primary system, which requires voters to register with a party before they cast a ballot. Ohio&#8217;s current primary system is partially open, meaning that voters are not required to register with a party before the election, but they must request either a Republican or Democratic ballot.
&#8220;This individual took advantage of an open primary process that’s far too vulnerable to trickery and fraud and used it to advance his dishonest campaign to &#8216;run Democrats as Republicans,'&#8221; LaRose added. &#8220;We stopped it this time, but it’s time to adopt a closed primary process and partisan voter registration before this happens again.&#8221;

Donkey posing as elephant

‘Political Transgenderism’ Enters The Chat After Secret Democrat Tried To Hoodwink Voters

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COLUMBUS, OHIO—I just finished testifying for a bill that would make it illegal for the state government to rip children away from loving parents who refuse to &#8220;affirm&#8221; that child&#8217;s so-called &#8220;transgender identity.&#8221;
It&#8217;s not every day an investigative journalist weighs in on legislation like this. But this is different.
More than two years ago, I began investigating how transgender activists were working to weaponize child welfare systems against loving parents.
I was horrified by what I found.
The <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/10/23/exclusive-child-services-dept-working-with-biden-harris-admin-tracked-trans-kids-on-secret-database/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cuyahoga County</a> Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) was chosen as one of four agencies nationwide to develop gender ideology-based child welfare interventions that suggest parents and caregivers who do not affirm a child’s sexual orientation or gender confusion are unsafe.
As part of its &#8220;Safe Identification&#8221; program, Cuyahoga County DCFS created a database that tracked the sexual orientation, transgender identity, and pronouns of children who interacted with the child welfare system. The database noted if parents were &#8220;accepting&#8221; or &#8220;rejecting&#8221; of their child&#8217;s gender identity. Parents who were &#8220;rejecting&#8221; could be referred to re-education programs where parents learned to &#8220;accept&#8221; their child&#8217;s transgender identity as a last resort before CPS stepped in and removed the child.
Some transgender activists believe refusing to affirm a child’s gender confusion is a form of<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-harris-hhs-consulted-activist-who-said-parents-should-be-prosecuted-for-transphobia" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> child abuse</a> and have even suggested families should be prosecuted as abusers for refusing to call their gender confused child the opposite sex.
Public records revealed that behind the scenes, members of the Cuyahoga County DCFS team were communicating with the Biden administration on how interventions like Safe Identification could be implemented at the federal level.
This would be insane regardless of where it was happening. But the fact that it&#8217;s been going on in a red state like Ohio is truly shocking.
As part of my reporting, I reached out to Ohio State Representative Gary Click and asked him to comment on what was happening in Cuyahoga County. He promised the Ohio legislature would not be idle while local government attempted to usurp the role of the family and harm children.
Click has kept that promise by co-sponsoring the<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-may-protect-parents-who-wont-affirm-their-childs-gender-identity" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Affirming Families First Act</a>, the bill I testified in favor of today. It states that parents have a right to use their child’s given name and correct pronouns, and prohibits state agencies from using state funds for training, education, or programming that characterizes affirming a child’s sex as abuse or neglect.
I’m proud to have played a part in this bill’s inspiration. As a mother, I know if we can’t protect our children from lies and raise them according to reality, without fear of retribution from the state, we no longer live in a free nation.
When the state strips custody from loving parents who simply don&#8217;t want to affirm their confused child&#8217;s gender delusions, it violates all the rights Americans hold dear: the freedoms of speech and religion first and foremost, as well as parental rights and medical freedom. All these protections are swiftly swept away as families are ripped apart and vulnerable youth are placed in the hands of transgender activists who encourage them to destroy their bodies.
I&#8217;ve spoken with parents who’ve experienced this nightmare, and I wouldn&#8217;t wish their pain on my worst enemy. I want to see vulnerable children and families in our nation protected from this insanity, which is why I&#8217;ve traveled to Ohio to testify in favor of a bill that will protect parents who do not “affirm” their transgender-identifying children.
I wasn&#8217;t always a journalist. I&#8217;m a nurse by training, but switched careers when I realized the extent to which radical transgender ideology was endangering children. I&#8217;ve since spent hundreds of hours exposing the horrors of transgenderism because I understand stopping gender ideology is the most important issue of our time. If we can’t define the basic reality of the sexes, we can’t define anything.
President Donald Trump has kept his campaign promises to purge gender ideology from the federal government, but without legislation, these policies can be reversed as quickly as they were implemented.
Some parental rights advocates I&#8217;ve spoken with are concerned we are one election away from a full return to the transgender insanity we were living through just 15 months ago.
The transgender activists have lost some major battles under President Trump. But the war for sanity is raging on. We can&#8217;t let up on fighting gender ideology until it&#8217;s been returned to the pit of hell it came from.

‘1 Million March for Children’ protest in Toronto

Why I Testified For A Bill That Would Stop The State From Taking Gender-Confused Kids From Parents

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