Cal DOGE director says Newsom is ‘not interested’ in fighting fraud

As allegations of hospice fraud mount in California, Republican congressional candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux is calling out state leaders and accusing them of failing to act because oversight loopholes allowed the problem to escalate.

“Every dollar was distributed from the State of California to these actual enforcement centers, and any oversight that was missing (it was 100%) was the State of California’s responsibility. So even though the federal government had to step in and do its job for Gavin Newsom to go after this, this is very much a California issue,” Le Roux told Fox News Digital. Le Roux told Fox News Digital.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has pushed back against allegations that the governor has failed to take action to combat the problem, arguing that the federal government is responsible for enforcement.

“FACT: The government has no role in the Medicare billing or payment process. We are glad the Trump Administrator is taking action to combat fraud. Now, if Trump could stop pardoning fraudsters and hold them accountable, that would be great!” Newsom’s press office He wrote about X in response to a CBS report about hospice fraud in California.

VANCE ANTI-FRAUD TASK FORCE HAS HAD 221 CALIFORNIA HOSPITALS AND HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS SO FAR

While the government does not process Medicare payments, licensed hospice providersEffectively determine which organizations can enroll in the federal program.

California has been rocked by allegations of widespread nursing home fraud, prompting federal action. CBS News found Of the nearly 1,800 nursing homes in Los Angeles County, 742 were still operating despite many red flags. In one area, nearly 500 hospice companies operated within a three-mile radius.

In March 2022, california state auditor He warned Newsom and state lawmakers about “a rapid increase in the number of hospice facilities with no clear correlation to increased need,” along with concerns about geographic clustering, long patient stays, high discharge rates and the possible use of stolen identities.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California arrested eight people in a health care fraud sting. The defendants allegedly “conspired to defraud the nation’s healthcare system of more than $50 million,” the office said in its announcement of the arrests, which were made in coordination with the Vice President’s Fraud Elimination Task Force. Part of the scheme involved “operating fake hospice care facilities,” according to the office.

HOME SURVEILLANCE TOLD COMER NEWSOM ‘LAWYER’ AS CALIFORNIA FRAUD PROBLEM STARTED

Republican congressional candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux’s organization, Cal DOGE, has vowed to get to the root of hospice fraud in the state. (iStock)

Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta on April 9 explained this the state was “taking decisive action to dismantle a large-scale identity theft and hospice fraud scheme targeting the Medi-Cal program in Los Angeles.”

The governor’s office said in its announcement that the scheme “involved 14 fraudulent hospice providers and resulted in more than $267 million in improper claims paid in state and federal funds.”

When reached for comment, Bonta’s office referred Fox News Digital to him. Press release relevant.

“This is not a political game for us. This is about protecting taxpayer dollars, protecting the programs that sick and vulnerable Californians rely on, and protecting our state,” Bonta said. he said. “Over the life of this fraudulent scheme, not a single legitimate care service was provided, yet millions were billed in a brazen, calculated scheme to exploit the Medi-Cal system. This was not a mistake or a loophole; it was intentional fraud.”

Le Roux, a cousin of Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, is running in the GOP primary for the 47th Congressional District, which covers part of Orange County.

He dismissed the announcement as a publicity stunt and criticized the governor for not outlining broader changes to the state’s hospice oversight system.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta. (Reuters/Fred Greaves/File Photo)

“Gavin Newsom isn’t actually interested in fighting fraud in California, he’s interested in news headlines,” he told Fox News Digital. “He’s trying to blame the shift and not take responsibility for it because it’s his job to stop nursing home fraud in California, even though the money comes from the federal government.”

On Wednesday, Fox News Digital learned that the anti-fraud task force led by Vice Mayor J.D. Vance suspended 447 nursing homes and 23 home health agencies in Los Angeles suspected of committing fraud. The total fraud estimate was over $600 million.

“There’s been a lot of talk about whose job it is to find fraud in California, and my answer is, it’s all of our jobs. That’s why, as director of Cal DOGE, we investigate more than 2,000 tipster tips statewide,” Le Roux said.

CALIFORNIA BUILDING WITH DOZENS OF HEALTH CARE, HOSPITAL PROVIDERS RAISE EYEBROWS OVER FRAUD SPECULATIONS

Cal DOGE, whose acronym is the same as the Federal Office of Government Efficiency, is an organization that aims to combat waste, fraud and abuse in the Golden State. Le Roux told Fox News Digital that the agency is taking a more aggressive approach than traditional surveillance efforts by investigating tips from tipsters and applying public pressure to uncover potential fraud.

“Ten weeks ago, when we launched DOGE, we said we were going to flip the script on how we were going to go after fraud in California. So instead of being nice and complying with Freedom of Information Act requests, we’re going to take public information and tipster tips and investigate fraud, explain exactly how the government is supposed to do it, and catch the scammers,” he said.

Jenny Rae Le Roux, candidate for California’s 47th Congressional District, speaks at an affordable town hall at Hotel Zessa in Santa Ana on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County, credited via Getty Images)

Le Roux argued that the scale of potential fraud in California far exceeds that seen in states such as Minnesota, adding that recent findings point to tens of billions of dollars in fraud and waste each year, but Fox News Digital has not been able to independently verify that figure.

“California’s budget is the fourth largest economy in the world and one of the largest budgets… And these 2,000 leads that we’re investigating right now cover every single department in the state of California,” he said. “Minnesota is just a drop in the bucket compared to what we’re seeing in California.”

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As he runs for office, Le Roux is hopeful he can take his fight to the federal level and ensure the government has a “full understanding” of where its funds are going.

“If you’re spending money in a place like California where there are clearly fraudulent practices, we need to do a better job of oversight at the federal level,” he said. “That’s why I decided to run for Congress because I started asking: ‘Why are we making Freedom of Information Act requests with taxpayer dollars?’ “Every dollar we spend, except defense, should be publicly disclosed.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.