{"id":10401,"date":"2026-05-20T10:31:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=10401"},"modified":"2026-05-20T10:31:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:31:58","slug":"california-benefit-scams-make-minnesota-fraud-look-like-childs-play-chris-rufo-tells-pod-force-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=10401","title":{"rendered":"California benefit scams make Minnesota fraud look like \u2018child&#8217;s play,\u2019 Chris Rufo tells \u2018Pod Force One\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 300px 160px; gap: 2px; width: 460px; background: #eee; padding: 2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u6574\u884c\u5bbd\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876674\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 90px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876676\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u5de6\u4fa7\u7ad6\u6392 -->\r\n  <div style=\"height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876672\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"height: 500px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876680\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u6469\u5929\u697c\uff08\u548c\u5de6\u4fa7\u5b8c\u5168\u5bf9\u9f50\uff09 -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row: 3\/5; height: 750px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876678\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  \r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e6\" data-zoneid=\"5876682\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The level of fraud in California under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom makes Minnesota\u2019s scandals look like \u201cchild\u2019s play,\u201d a conservative activist explained on the latest episode of \u201cPod Force One,\u201d noting that at one point only two officials were tasked to root out scammers in the Golden State.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe scale of it in the state of California is just another level entirely,\u201d Chris Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and one of the first writers to shed light on the Minnesota Somali fraud problem, told \u201cPod Force One\u201d host Miranda Devine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since Newsom was sworn in as governor in 2019, California has become\u00a0 a \u201cbig fat target\u201d for scammers, Rufo explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Rufo was one of the first to report on the widespread Somali fraud plaguing Minnesota. <span class=\"credit\">New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIndividuals from all walks of life, all nationalities, even all parts of the country have recognized that the California government is essentially open to business for fraud schemes,\u201d he told Devine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rufo, a filmmaker and author, pointed out that \u201cfraudsters stole approximately $32 billion from the state\u2019s unemployment insurance program\u201d during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>In one notorious case highlighted by Rufo, Tennessee rapper Nuke Bizzle was caught ripping off taxpayers only after he released a music video \u201cdetailing precisely how he was able to defraud the state of California.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut there is also this ethnic, ethno-political element,\u201d the influential author continued. \u201cAnd you see certain populations, for example, the Armenians in Southern California, that seem to be perpetrating fraud at scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne police detective I talked to said Romanians, Armenians, Nigerians, there are certain kind of sub-populations or national populations that have been caught over and over and over ripping off the state government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor whatever complex historical and cultural reasons,\u201d these groups, according to Rufo, \u201chave a culture of exploitation, fraud, ripping off the government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey come to the United States, they come to California in particular, and one insider told us the thing about California is this, you\u2019re most likely to not get caught, and if you get caught you\u2019re most likely to not face charges, and if you do face charges and get convicted, you\u2019re most likely to not serve much, if any time at all,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd so, it\u2019s a means, motive and opportunity. It\u2019s a classic story of criminal conduct, and that\u2019s why I think you see it happening in California at such scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Rapper Nuke Bizzle was caught defrauding California after he bragged about it in a music video, Rufo said. <span class=\"credit\">YouTube\/NUKE BIZZLE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Rufo argued Minnesota fraud is \u201cchild\u2019s play\u201d compared to California fraud. <span class=\"credit\">LP Media for NY Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rufo, who also led the fight to expose critical race theory and DEI in education, argued that fraudsters have largely been able to get away with stealing from the state because \u201c\u2019no effective fraud controls\u201d have been implemented.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust to use the example of unemployment insurance, when California was spending billions of dollars per week at the height of COVID, losing tens of billions of dollars to fraudsters, in our reporting we showed that in the entire state, there were only two individual bureaucrats assigned to actually give oversight to the system to ensure that there wasn\u2019t fraudulent activity,\u201d Rufo said, \u201cand so when they\u2019re being flooded with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pieces of paperwork per day, two people is obviously insufficient to oversee that amount of funding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the criminals themselves, others benefiting from fraud in California include political groups, like labor unions, and Democratic politicians, including Newsom, Rufo argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\" style=\"font-size:19px\"><em style=\"font-weight: bold\">Every week<\/em>, <strong><em>Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington on \u2018Pod Force One.\u2019 Subscribe here!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.nypost.com\/protected-iframe\/e1f613d59ffd9cd7d76ab71b596e3706\" scrolling=\"auto\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"\" allow=\"camera; fullscreen;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>\u201c[H]e benefits from the perception of an increase in employment,\u201d Rufo said of Newsom. \u201cSo, if there are people working for in-home supportive services, which is probably the most fraud-ridden program in California, it looks like California is adding jobs, even if many of those jobs are fraudulent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd second, and relatedly, the public sector and rather the private sector or semi-public sector unions benefit,\u201d the Manhattan Institute fellow continued. \u201cSo, if money is flooding through the healthcare system, those healthcare-worker unions take their cut, they get now hundreds of millions of dollars per year by skimming wages off the top, and then a lot of that money goes back into the coffers of California State Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, when you look at the system as a whole, it resembles a circle, and the money flows from taxpayers to fraud schemes, to unions, to politicians, and then it\u2019s kind of crisscrossing between those various entities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe title=\"Christopher Rufo: Democrats&#039; Vote Farming &amp; Fraud\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yRPKjOprNQY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Rufo warned \u201cthe system will not change so long as the people who have the levers of power benefit from the system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the lesson that we\u2019ve seen over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- \u603b\u5bb9\u5668\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u5bbd908px Grid\u7d27\u51d1\u5e03\u5c40 -->\r\n<div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 728px 160px; gap:2px; width:908px; background:#eee; padding:2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u901a\u680f\u9876\u90e8\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u6a2a\u5e45 908x258 \u8de8\u6574\u884c -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column:1\/-1; 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Gavin Newsom makes Minnesota\u2019s scandals look&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[3398,581,9264,1927,2682,1025,5210,3069,5494,10253,3783,795],"class_list":["post-10401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-benefit","tag-california","tag-childs","tag-chris","tag-force","tag-fraud","tag-minnesota","tag-play","tag-pod","tag-rufo","tag-scams","tag-tells"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556.jpg",1200,799,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-768x511.jpg",640,426,true],"large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556.jpg",1200,799,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556.jpg",1200,799,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-1115x715.jpg",1115,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-800x500.jpg",800,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-1024x682.jpg",1024,682,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/128239556-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?cat=349\" rel=\"category\">Blog<\/a>","tag_info":"Blog","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}