Over the past decade, Californians have witnessed a variety of fraudulent schemes within the state escalate to levels never seen before. The types of fraud hurting California include Medi-Cal, infrastructure and homelessness spending fraud. Apparently, the California government is an easy target.
According to Yahoo News and FOX40, it is “the most scammed state in America” and is “losing nearly 18 billion dollars a year.” We, as taxpayers, are the victims of these schemes. Many of the people we know, like our parents, families and members of our community, are hard-working taxpayers who pay the price for billions of dollars that go to waste. For the past eight years, Gavin Newsom has been our governor. Ultimately, in my opinion, the responsibility lies at his feet.
One of the most costly forms of fraud is Medi-Cal, which has drained billions of dollars from the state’s healthcare system under Newsom’s government. To highlight a major case, prosecutors arrested three conspirators who used a pharmacy business to process fraudulent medical prescriptions for patients that did not exist, and by doing so defrauded taxpayers more than $170 million. Additionally, state auditors have identified close to $4 billion in suspicious Medi-Cal payments due to eligibility discrepancies that California has been unable to fix. These massive problems illustrate the state’s attempt to expand specific programs rather than protect the tax dollars that fund them.
Arguably, the most famous form of fraud in California is the High Speed Railroad Project. The High Speed Railroad Project, beginning in 2008, aimed to connect LA and San Francisco. This project was estimated to cost around $33 billion, but over time, the price has been raised to $126 billion. It is important to note that this project did not start under Governor Newsom; however, not a single track has been laid down, and the government has continued to put billions into the companies building it. Patrick Gjerdrum ’27 expresses his anger on this issue by stating the obvious: “Is there a point in paying taxes if they do not go back to benefiting us?” Governor Newsom could very well stop this project, but he continues to fund it with taxpayer and federal funds, and it won’t even get started until AFTER he is termed out as Governor. Federal investigators terminated $4 billion due to systematic mismanagement and misleading conduct.
Those who do not believe that the railroad is the biggest form of fraud usually believe it’s instead the ongoing homelessness crisis. $24 billion of taxpayer money has been spent to solve this issue, and there has been little accountability for how the money was spent. In fact, state auditors can’t determine whether the funds were even used effectively. As someone who drives through downtown every day, the funds were NOT used effectively.
Newsom had a campaign promise to solve the homeless crisis in his “10-year homelessness plan,” when running for mayor of San Francisco. Well, it is now 20 years since that pledge, and the homeless population has skyrocketed. Due to the continual funding of these programs and the government turning a blind eye, our communities are less safe, and the state has provided no help at all to solve the homeless problem.
I must be transparent; fraud is not only happening in California, and it would be incorrect to say that fraud is not happening at every level of government; fraud is also occurring under the Trump Administration and in other states. Junior Advisory Teacher Matthew Baham encourages us to always look at the big picture: “What is actually happening? Who is being affected? How do we respond in a way that promotes justice and accountability? Again, as our Loyola mission is to form ‘men and women for others,’ when we hear questions about leadership and fraud, the question really becomes, how do we ensure that institutions are serving the people it is meant to serve.”
However, the purpose of this article is not to talk about all 50 states or the Executive Branch; it is to call for accountability and to demand that Governor Newsom crack down on fraud that is being committed in the government during his administration. To quickly add another bold piece of evidence, Newsom’s own chief of staff was indicted on 23 counts of bank fraud in 2025 while working beside him.
It is ironic that he has claimed to “lead the charge” against fraud while his own state leads the country in the most fraud committed, and his own allies are able to take advantage of the state’s organizations. Californians deserve policies that will actually crack down on fraud and help put Californians’ money to use, instead of wasting tax dollars (the highest taxes in the country). California deserves better, and it starts with holding elected officials accountable.
