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Tag: Taxpayer Dollars

Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States
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Just The News, Approved, National

Report Says Billions Lost to Fraud as Federal Programs Flow Through States

By Brett Rowland | Just the News Programs in question include Medicaid, food stamps and disaster relief. Twenty federal programs that route nearly $1.1 trillion through state governments – including Medicaid, SNAP and disaster relief – are vulnerable to fraud because of how the money is distributed, the Government Accountability Office reports. The money rarely goes straight from Washington to a recipient. It passes through states, then often to subrecipients, contractors and subcontractors. Every layer, GAO found, adds another entry point for fraud while making oversight harder to enforce. The report is the first in a planned GAO series examining fraud in state-administered programs. It reaffirms the agency's estimate that the government loses between $233 bi...
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Lorena García’s nonprofit took $6.6 million in state money while its lobbyist backed bills she sponsored
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Lorena García’s nonprofit took $6.6 million in state money while its lobbyist backed bills she sponsored

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Before Lorena García was a Colorado state representative, the organization she runs had collected about $13,000 from the state of Colorado in the five years before she filled the vacancy, according to state payment records. That changed when she joined the legislature. The Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition (CSPC) was founded in 1980 by Richard Garcia, Lorena García’s father, who ran it as executive director through 2017, according to the organization’s IRS filings. Lorena García took over as executive director in 2018. Since García was appointed to the Colorado House in January 2023, the nonprofit she leads has received $6.64 million in state payments. That is 99.8 percent of every dollar state payment records sho...
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Jefferson County Brothers Accused of Stealing $12 Million From Medicaid Program
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Jefferson County Brothers Accused of Stealing $12 Million From Medicaid Program

By: Matt Kyle | The Denver Gazette Two Jefferson County men have been indicted on a slew of charges alleging they fraudulently obtained $12 million from Medicaid. James Andrew Heath, 33 and Jared Parker Heath, 37, were indicted on June 12 in Denver District Court. They are accused of defrauding Colorado’s Medicaid optical program by falsely billing Medicaid for glasses and other materials through their business QuickSpex LLC, according to a news release from Attorney General Phil Weiser. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
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EPA Boss Alleges Billions In Green Grants Were Funneled Through Democrat Linked Groups
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Just The News, Approved, National

EPA Boss Alleges Billions In Green Grants Were Funneled Through Democrat Linked Groups

By John Solomon | Just the News Lee Zeldin alleges that eight nonprofit "cutouts" were used to route billions to former Obama-Biden cronies. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin says he has made several criminal referrals after uncovering a major political enrichment scandal that routed billions in Biden-era green energy grants to Democrat cronies. “It's about self-dealing,” Zeldin tells Just the News. Zeldin said he has canceled or stopped about $29 billion in EPA grants – including one for $2 billion to a nonprofit tied to longtime Georgia Democrat election activist and failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams – after unmasking a series of pass-through groups used to route taxpayer monies to the politically connected. “As you loo...
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Colorado Capitol Clash Erupts Over Nonprofits Receiving Advanced Taxpayer Funds
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Capitol Clash Erupts Over Nonprofits Receiving Advanced Taxpayer Funds

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER – GOP opposition to a bill passed in the final hours of the 2026 Colorado legislative session around tax dollars going to non-profits stirred up a pot of anger and controversy among Democrat legislators tied to organizations that stood to benefit. So much so that one state senator pledged to pursue restriction next session prohibiting sitting lawmakers from profiting on taxpayer’s money. House Bill 26-1274, sponsored by Democrat Representatives Monica Duran from Jefferson County and Mandy Lindsay from Arapahoe County and carried in the Senate by Democrats Katie Wallace of Boulder and Mike Weissman of Adams County, changed the way non-profits can collect a portion of state grant money in the future. But amendments offered in th...
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Gambling with taxpayer dollars: Colorado bill could allow nonprofits to get paid before work is done
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Approved, Colorado Accountability Project, Commentary, State

Gambling with taxpayer dollars: Colorado bill could allow nonprofits to get paid before work is done

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project Gambling taxpayer money to bolster our nonprofit ecosystem. When you hire someone to do something for you, do you give them an advance? I’ve done it both ways: cash on delivery only and an upfront payment for, say, the materials. The bill linked at bottom makes some noteworthy changes to the way our state interacts with multiple nonprofits it pays to do its work. There are multiple directions you could go in with your speculation, but I think it’s reasonable to conclude overall that the bill bolsters the connection between our government and nonprofits, that it enriches the tightly-interconnected ecosystem of NGO’s and nonprofits in Colorado.** Under current law, prior to this bill, if a state awards a grant to a nonprofit for so...
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How many lawmakers benefit from taxpayer-funded nonprofits in Colorado?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

How many lawmakers benefit from taxpayer-funded nonprofits in Colorado?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I saw a CPR article (see the first link below) about how much Colorado legislators are paid recently. It was one of their "Colorado Wonders" series. This is a series where CPR writes articles based on reader questions. If you want more on that series, see the second link below. I read the article on how much Colorado legislators are paid. If that's something you've wondered, give it a look. The answer is "not much", but if you look at the daily rate for what has always been and ought to continue to be a part-time job, it's respectable. Noting that it was completely missing from the CPR piece on legislator pay, I had a little Colorado Wonders of my own. I actually took the time to submit it to CPR last week immedi...
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Follow the money faster: New tool unlocks Colorado spending data in minutes
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Follow the money faster: New tool unlocks Colorado spending data in minutes

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project I have mentioned (and used) the TOPS system, our state’s online checkbook register, multiple times. It’s a great way to see who our state is paying and for what. I noticed recently (within the last 6 months) that the people who run it made it significantly harder to use: I’m not sure why, but at some point they made it so you can only go month by month.** I had a reader kindly volunteer his time and skill at computer programming to come up with a way to automate TOPS searches so I, and now you since the program is public, don’t have to click and wait month by month to find what we need. The program this person came up with lives online and is linked first below. They titled it a TOPS scraper. It’s pretty i...
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Audits Across 28 States Halt $5.7 Billion in Improper Spending
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Red State, Approved, National

Audits Across 28 States Halt $5.7 Billion in Improper Spending

By Ben Smith | RedState.com For years, fraud has been dismissed as a right-wing talking point from the Trump administration. A new report from state financial officers makes that claim harder to ignore. Across 28 states, auditors say they identified and stopped $5.7 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse in a single year. Those findings span Medicaid eligibility systems, local government budgets, payroll controls, and nonprofit oversight. The money did not disappear into thin air. It was tracked, documented, and stopped once someone chose to look. The State Financial Officers Foundation’s 2025 Oversight Report lays out what 40 state treasurers, auditors, and comptrollers say they uncovered after digging into eligibility systems, payment flows, an...
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Arapahoe Community College Battles Fake Students Exploiting Financial Aid Programs
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DENVER7, Approved, Local

Arapahoe Community College Battles Fake Students Exploiting Financial Aid Programs

By: Natalie Chuck, Joe Vaccarelli | Denver7 Arapahoe Community College is one of several local schools fighting to identify "ghost students" before they enroll, Denver7 Investigates has found. EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was produced in collaboration with our partners at ABC News.  LITTLETON, Colo. — After the COVID-19 pandemic led to more online learning, community colleges and other higher learning centers have had to deal with a new phenomenon that’s hard to see: "ghost students." "Ghost students" are scammers who create fake identities or steal someone else’s to enroll in school, apply for federal financial aid and make off with the money, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. An ABC News investigation found that colleges across the country...
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