Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 29, 2026


BONUS POD： The Fraud Epidemic： Trump's DOJ Targets Billions in Stolen Tax Dollars

Topics
fraud enforcement surge
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Guests
Timmy Tillman
Mentioned
Faultline Haditha Bobby Bones Trevor Sikama Ben Ferguson Donald Trump Kalshi Trump Andrew Siciliano Matt Kester Matt Cassel Ken Paxton Mike Yam Fernando Mendoza Greg Rosen Herbert Gino
Dems Embrace Socialism & Open Borders plus UK Terror Plot Foiled Massive Bipartisan WIN to Save College Sports

Episode Stats


Length

22 minutes

Words per minute

158.46

Word count

3,494

Sentence count

191

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:34 I believe that whoever was in that room and did that was a murderer.
00:00:39 A new podcast series, Faultline Haditha,
00:00:41 tells the story of a shocking crime and a cover-up
00:00:44 at the highest levels of the United States Marine Corps.
00:00:47 If you've got five players and you offer immunity to four,
00:00:50 you better be right about the fifth.
00:00:52 Because if you're not, then you've just given immunity to your killer.
00:00:55 Listen to Faultline Haditha on the iHeartRadio app,
00:00:58 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:01:28 an all-star cast of co-hosts as we
00:01:30 preview and recap every game.
00:01:32 Listen to NFL Daily on the
00:01:34 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
00:01:36 or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:01:38 I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm
00:01:40 Trevor Sykema. If you love football
00:01:42 and want to understand what's really happening
00:01:44 on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro.
00:01:46 Every week, we break down the biggest
00:01:48 plays, trends, and matchups using
00:01:50 exclusive next-gen stats insights
00:01:52 and NFL content you will not find anywhere
00:01:54 else. Whether you're new to football,
00:01:55 a fantasy football fanatic, or a diehard fan,
00:01:59 NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro.
00:02:02 Listen to NFL Pro on the iHeartRadio app,
00:02:05 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:02:10 Whether you're a seasoned NFL fan or new to the game,
00:02:13 there's one place to keep up with all of it.
00:02:15 The league's newest podcast, The NFL Report,
00:02:18 hosted by me, Andrew Siciliano.
00:02:20 It is your home for everything football.
00:02:22 Breaking news, expert analysis, game picks,
00:02:24 and hear from your favorite players, too.
00:02:26 Join me and an all-star cast of experts
00:02:28 for everything you need to know from around the league.
00:02:31 Get new episodes of the NFL Report
00:02:32 Monday through Friday, all season long.
00:02:35 Listen to the NFL Report podcast
00:02:36 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
00:02:39 or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:02:42 Hey, I'm Mike Yam.
00:02:44 And I'm Trevor Sikama.
00:02:45 And together, we host the NFL Fantasy Football Show.
00:02:48 Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season?
00:02:51 Because if you aren't locked in with us
00:02:52 On the NFL Fantasy Football Show, you're already playing from behind.
00:02:56 Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship,
00:03:00 we give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move count.
00:03:04 Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Show on the iHeartRadio app,
00:03:07 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:03:22 You're in training camp, and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media.
00:03:28 Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over you week one.
00:03:31 How do you handle this?
00:03:32 You just go back out to practice the next day and wait for him to mess up.
00:03:35 Listen to Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:03:43 It's going to end soon, but because they can't go on, they can't go on.
00:03:47 Their nation's destroyed.
00:03:49 But I have to say, you have a little higher, you have a higher gain.
00:03:54 It's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done.
00:03:58 Remember that it's a little more.
00:04:00 It's even if it was, frankly, even if it was a lot more.
00:04:03 But that's going to come tumbling down.
00:04:05 That's going to be like a rocket ship in reverse.
00:04:08 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:04:12 Good Tuesday morning.
00:04:13 Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:04:15 And we've got several big stories for you.
00:04:17 The Trump administration's fraud crackdown is now uncovering another massive scheme.
00:04:23 Twelve people are now charged an alleged $10 million California daycare fraud operation.
00:04:29 And the DOJ says this is just the tip of the iceberg.
00:04:33 They also have much bigger nationwide indictments that I'm going to break down for you as well.
00:04:39 And those are costing you not millions, but billions of dollars of your tax dollars going to foreign countries.
00:04:46 Now, I have all those details for you, and I'm going to get to that in just a moment.
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00:06:31 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:06:35 Story number one.
00:06:36 Fraud is something we focus on often on this show, and it seems that we keep finding a lot more of it.
00:06:41 This time, even more shocking, and yet again, coming out of, yeah, California.
00:06:46 The Justice Department has announced that 12 individuals have now been charged in Southern California.
00:06:53 And what they're describing is an alleged home daycare massive fraud scheme involving more than $10 million in taxpayer-funded child care money.
00:07:03 And wait until you hear how prosecutors say this actually worked.
00:07:07 The money was supposed to help, quote, low-income families pay for child care.
00:07:12 Instead, the federal prosecutors now allege that millions of dollars were funneled
00:07:18 to bogus or fraudulent daycare operations that were claiming taxpayer money for child care
00:07:24 they allegedly were not actually providing.
00:07:28 Sound familiar?
00:07:29 It's awful close to what we found in Minnesota.
00:07:32 Now, this wasn't a tiny investigation either.
00:07:36 According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, more than 250 federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel participated in the coordinated takedown.
00:07:48 They said that all 12 defendants were arrested and authorities executed search warrants at 12 different San Diego area homes that claimed to be operating as child daycare facilities.
00:08:00 They were not. They were homes. Now, the details in the federal complaint are extraordinary as
00:08:06 well. Prosecutors say the system, well, this is how it worked. The defendants obtained California
00:08:11 licenses to operate home child care facilities. They then registered with organizations administering
00:08:18 subsidized child care for eligible families. In essence, this is another form of welfare.
00:08:26 Now to get paid, daycare providers were required to submit attendance records
00:08:30 documenting which children were actually being cared for
00:08:33 along with the dates and times that they were there.
00:08:37 That's pretty straightforward.
00:08:38 You take care of a child, you document it, the government reimburses you
00:08:42 and that's how the system works.
00:08:45 But prosecutors allege these defendants submitted false attendance records
00:08:49 claiming children were receiving daycare when they weren't.
00:08:54 And investigators apparently decided to test those claims against reality.
00:08:59 They conducted surveillance.
00:09:01 One defendant allegedly claimed he cared for 23 children in March of 2026 and 25 children in April.
00:09:10 And that he provided child care every single day during those two months.
00:09:15 Federal investigators say surveillance covered 57 days during that period.
00:09:19 And guess how many days they allegedly saw children entering or leaving the facility?
00:09:26 One time. One day out of 57.
00:09:30 And here's the remarkable part.
00:09:32 According to the federal complaint, that one day happened to be a day a state inspector arrived for an unannounced inspection.
00:09:41 Prosecutors say the children and even the daycare operator himself showed up after the inspector arrived.
00:09:49 That's what federal prosecutors are alleging.
00:09:52 Now, what's crazy is the story gets even, well, more insane from here
00:09:56 because investigators compared some daycare attendance claims against border crossing records.
00:10:02 One defendant allegedly left the United States around January the 1st of 2024
00:10:07 and didn't return until around January the 30th.
00:10:11 So that would be 30 days there out of the country.
00:10:13 Yet, according to the prosecutors, attendance records were still submitted claiming child care was being provided at the home during January when the person who was supposed to be watching the children was literally out of the country.
00:10:28 Now, the government also says eight subsequent direct deposits total nearly $15,000.
00:10:36 Federal investigators say each of the 12 defendants received somewhere between approximately $538,000 and $1.2 million over varying periods.
00:10:48 Now, several allegedly collected more than $1 million each.
00:10:52 altogether prosecutors say more than 10 million intended to help low-income families was diverted
00:10:58 through these alleged schemes now the defendants are facing wire fraud charges with some also
00:11:05 charged with money laundering these again are all the allegations and of course the defendants are
00:11:11 going to say oh no no no we're all innocent now this wasn't the only thing that the trump
00:11:17 administration announced this past week the justice department and small business administration
00:11:21 also announced the results of a nationwide enforcement surge
00:11:25 that was targeting fraud involving pandemic-era government loans.
00:11:30 Remember, there was a lot of people taking a lot of cash during the pandemic,
00:11:33 and it was a free-for-all to get money.
00:11:36 Well, now we know that between June 12th and September 1,
00:11:40 prosecutors say enforcement actions involved more than 160 criminal defendants
00:11:46 and more than 245 million in intended taxpayer losses roughly 80 defendants were newly charged
00:11:56 others are already pleading guilty and there is even some that have already been sentenced
00:12:01 now these schemes sound exactly like what we also saw recently in minnesota they're familiar
00:12:08 fake businesses bogus payroll numbers false revenue information and then of course identity theft used
00:12:15 to obtain taxpayer-backed loans.
00:12:17 Now, the Small Business Association says approximately 870,000 borrowers
00:12:23 suspected of fraud involving pandemic-era programs are being suspended
00:12:28 from eligibility for future federal SBA loans.
00:12:33 Officials say that these pandemic-level loan fraud was massive.
00:12:38 and they say that the suspensions now are associated with an estimated 39 billion in
00:12:46 suspected fraud yeah that would be your tax dollars that disappeared now the sba says that
00:12:52 when combined with previous actions borrowers connected to approximately 49 billion in fraud
00:12:59 and have now been suspended across all 50 states and you just got to think about those numbers i
00:13:05 just gave you we're no longer talking about somebody lying on a form to steal a few thousand
00:13:09 dollars we're now talking about fraud investigations reaching into the tens of billions of dollars
00:13:15 and the doj by the way isn't limiting this to the pandemic programs they're also saying that
00:13:21 health care is another enormous target now the justice department also has announced a health
00:13:27 care fraud crackdown involving 450 defendants and they stole allegedly more than 6.5 billion
00:13:37 and just this last month prosecutors in massachusetts announced another charge
00:13:42 connected to what the doj called operation gold rush that was an enormous health care fraud
00:13:49 prosecution that the doj says targeted medicare and other insurers now a foreign national this is
00:13:56 just one guy by the way was indicted on a money laundering conspiracy charge connected to a 1.3
00:14:04 billion health care fraud scheme prosecutors described the broader organization behind
00:14:09 operation gold rush is a foreign base let me say it again a foreign based operation from russia
00:14:17 and elsewhere so 1.3 billion of your dollars disappeared to russia and other countries
00:14:23 now again this is another example of what donald trump said he was going to do and the government's
00:14:30 made it clear that fraud is not victimless and a great example this goes back to our first story
00:14:35 when somebody allegedly invents daycare attendance and then takes child care subsidies this isn't
00:14:41 just government money it's your money and it's taking away from children and actually need it
00:14:45 and when somebody is creating a fake company and they take a fraudulent pandemic loan
00:14:49 in the billions and billions of dollars again that's your money and when somebody bills medicare
00:14:56 as the government just exposed again for services that were never provided well that money is coming
00:15:01 out of the program funded by american taxpayers and by the way there's a lot of american seniors
00:15:06 that rely on those programs and that is why donald trump has said every dollar stolen makes
00:15:13 legitimate programs more expensive and harder for the taxpayers to sustain them and that is exactly
00:15:20 why they highlight the san diego daycare case and why it's so revealing because the federal
00:15:25 investigators say they didn't simply look at paperwork and shrug they compared the paperwork
00:15:30 with surveillance they checked travel and border records they followed bank deposits they compared
00:15:36 what providers told the government with the investigators and what they actually saw happening
00:15:40 at those addresses and those alleged discrepancies they led to those 12 arrests and the big takeaway
00:15:47 is that the trump administration has made this a formal government-wide priority the justice
00:15:54 department established its national fraud enforcement division in april the doj says it
00:15:59 works and it supports president trump's task force to eliminate fraud and that's chaired by
00:16:04 the vice president jd vance now the message that the trump administration officials are trying to
00:16:09 end is that programs that may previously have been easy targets for fraud are now going to face
00:16:15 much much more as they described it aggressive scrutiny and there's also a second part of this
00:16:21 story and why it matters is well this reason finding fraud is one thing getting the money
00:16:26 back is another the sba says it has referred more than 22 billion associated with suspected
00:16:33 fraudulent or delinquent pandemic loans to the treasury department for collection and that is
00:16:39 an important moment for all of us because this is exactly what we should be demanding that every
00:16:45 tax dollar that was stolen be recovered now the real test is cracked down will be prosecutions
00:16:50 and then convictions and where the evidence proves guilt well the taxpayers we should be made whole
00:16:57 they probably will never be made whole for what they stole but at least it's sending a staggering
00:17:02 message that this government's actually looking for daycare schemes looking for medicare schemes
00:17:09 looking for all of the different schemes when you've got more than 160 defendants caught up in
00:17:15 this recent pandemic loan enforcement surge well that's 245 million in intended losses you've got
00:17:24 hundreds of corrupt individuals that have now been charged worth billions in just the home
00:17:29 health care fraud schemes and tens of billions of dollars associated with suspected pandemic
00:17:34 lending all that together now you understand why our deficit is such a problem and that 10 million
00:17:40 in southern california in the daycare case well it may be small compared to some of the other cases
00:17:46 but when you can look at taxpayers and say we stopped 10 million in fraud that's a good day for
00:17:52 everyone. So yet again, the Trump administration throwing down on fraud on multiple levels at
00:17:59 multiple states and multiple categories. And it's pretty clear they're just getting started.
00:18:04 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit
00:18:10 subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in-depth news,
00:18:16 also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.
00:18:20 The new NFL season is here, and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 61.
00:18:28 It is in the name NFL Daily.
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00:18:57 And I'm Trevor Sikama.
00:18:58 If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro.
00:19:03 Every week, we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else.
00:19:11 Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanatic, or a diehard fan,
00:19:16 NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro.
00:19:20 Listen to NFL Pro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:19:28 Hey, I'm Mike Yam.
00:19:30 And I'm Trevor Sikama.
00:19:31 And together, we host the NFL Fantasy Football Show.
00:19:34 Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season?
00:19:37 Because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL Fantasy Football Show,
00:19:40 you're already playing from behind.
00:19:42 Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet
00:19:45 chasing another championship, we give you the advantage
00:19:47 and the confidence you need to make every move count.
00:19:50 Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Show on the iHeartRadio app,
00:19:54 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:19:59 Hey, it's Bobby Bones.
00:20:00 Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Cassel
00:20:03 every Wednesday on our podcast,
00:20:05 Lots to Say, with me, Bobby Bones, and Matt Cassel.
00:20:08 You're in training camp, and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media.
00:20:14 Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over you week one.
00:20:17 How do you handle this?
00:20:18 You just go back out to practice the next day and wait for him to mess up.
00:20:21 Listen to Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the iHeartRadio app,
00:20:25 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:20:28 Whether you're a seasoned NFL fan or new to the game,
00:20:31 there's one place to keep up with all of it.
00:20:33 The league's newest podcast, The NFL Report, hosted by me, Andrew Siciliano.
00:20:38 It is your home for everything football, breaking news, expert analysis, game picks,
00:20:42 and hear from your favorite players, too.
00:20:44 Join me and an all-star cast of experts for everything you need to know from around the league.
00:20:49 Get new episodes of the NFL Report Monday through Friday, all season long.
00:20:53 Listen to the NFL Report podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:21:00 The World Cup is over, but if you caught the soccer bug and aren't sure what to do now,
00:21:03 check out our podcast, Big Kick Energy.
00:21:05 I'm Cameron Dicker, the kicker from the Los Angeles Chargers,
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00:21:15 Each week, we'll tackle things like,
00:21:16 who's winning the Premier League this year?
00:21:18 What do you think is harder, scoring a penalty kick or scoring a field goal?
00:21:22 Join us each week for a quick chat with your soccer-loving bros
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00:21:27 Soccer. Just don't tell my coaches I said that.
00:21:30 Listen to Big Kick Energy on the iHeartRadio app,
00:21:32 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:21:35 I believe that whoever was in that room and did that was a murderer.
00:21:40 A new podcast series, Faultline Haditha, tells the story of a shocking crime and a cover-up at the highest levels of the United States Marine Corps.
00:21:48 If you've got five players and you offer immunity to four, you better be right about the fifth.
00:21:53 Because if you're not, then you've just given immunity to your killer.
00:21:56 Listen to Faultline Haditha on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.