Ernst: The Grift that Keeps on Giving

When Americans send their tax dollars to Washington, they deserve to know their hard-earned money will be carefully safeguarded and responsibly spent.

Yet, fraudsters are ripping off $1.4 billion of taxpayer money every single day. That’s a lot of money to go missing without anyone noticing.

Like I’ve always said, if you can’t find waste, fraud, or abuse in Washington, there can only be one reason: you didn’t look.

Well, folks all around the country are looking, and what they are seeing is shocking.

From vacant child care centers in Minnesota to phony hospices in Los Angeles to bogus home care services in Ohio, taxpayer dollars intended to care for children, the elderly, and the disabled are being stolen by serial criminals and fraud tourists.

It’s the grift that keeps on giving.

I’ve invited several whistleblowers from Minnesota’s Department of Health to testify before the Senate today and share their inside stories of being bullied and subjected to retaliation for calling attention to suspicious activity involving taxpayer money. Other civil servants in the state have been subjected to similar mistreatment, saying they were warned to look away from corruption, which has long been an “open secret.”

We will also hear from Luke Rosiak, an award-winning investigative journalist, who discovered 94 companies located at one address in Ohio that have been billing Medicaid, the health care program for the low-income and disabled, for tens of millions of dollars for “personal services.” Luke went door-to-door in the building and found the offices largely empty or vacant.

Folks, the fleecing is occurring in plain sight.

There are even fraud influencers shamelessly sharing their scams on social media.

One woman, who describes herself as a “con artist,” flaunted her pricey purchases and lavish lifestyle on TikTok and Instagram, all financed by defrauding the Small Business Administration (SBA) and federal programs for the unemployed.

An SBA employee actually advertised and promoted her pyramid scheme on social media. She recruited accomplices online, who were instructed how to submit bogus applications for small business assistance, which she then used her insider access to approve in exchange for kickbacks. She got away with it for years, stealing more than $3.5 million from four different programs.

A rapper posted a music video on YouTube bragging about how he got rich quickly by filing over a million dollars’ worth of bogus unemployment claims—and even flashing the checks in the video.

Missing a rap video on YouTube is one thing, but bureaucrats handing out benefits are also missing the extensive rap sheets of repeat offenders fraudulently applying for—and receiving—taxpayer money.

More than 1,300 companies owned by felons were given financial support by the SBA during the pandemic, despite not being eligible for the support due to their owners’ criminal histories.

Other fraudsters are not quite as blatant, but just as obvious, like the Quality Learing Center in Minnesota.

If you can’t even spell “learning” properly, it’s a safe bet that not a lot of learning is actually happening there, but a whole lot of fraud might be. The absence of children at the child care center should have been another dead giveaway. Yet, Minnesota gave nearly $10 million to the now-closed child care center.

Serial fraudsters seem to live by the motto, “if you succeed, try and try again.”

That is why I dug deeper and discovered that the Quality Learing Center also received nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the SBA during the pandemic, including $221,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and a $10,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan.

At least 28 of the personal care companies in Ohio highlighted by Mr. Rosiak’s investigations also received financial assistance from the SBA, according to a review conducted by my office.

Enough is enough.

I am giving my May 2026 Squeal Award to the fraud-fluencers and serial fraudsters who have made fleecing taxpayers a lifestyle.

I am also demanding the SBA Office of Inspector General investigate by reviewing SBA assistance provided to the Quality Learing Center and, at a minimum, the 28 companies billing Medicaid for personal services in Ohio and recover every penny of taxpayer money that may have been stolen.

Con artists across the country, and especially those at the Quality Learing Center, are soon going to lear the hard way that fraud no longer pays.

Joni Ernst, a native of Red Oak and a combat veteran, represents Iowa in the United States Senate.

Click here for an official portrait of Senator Ernst.

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