L.A. County Escalates Fight Against Fraud as Board Proclaims
Fraud Awareness Week
Every year, public and private organizations lose billions of dollars to fraud, waste and abuse. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday declared November 16-22 Fraud Awareness Week and encouraged residents, businesses and County employees to use the County Fraud Hotline to report suspected fraud, waste or abuse involving County government resources.
“Los Angeles County has a robust system in place to investigate and prevent fraud, but we rely on tips from the public, our employees, and vendors to identify fraudulent schemes and abuse of the system,” said Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger. “A few ‘bad apples’ can cost taxpayers money, so we need to stop fraud in its tracks.”
Tips from the public and employees are consistently the most common ways in which fraud is detected, and Los Angeles County has maintained an anonymous Fraud Hotline since 1988. Anyone can report online at fraud.lacounty.gov, call (800) 544-6861, or email fraud@auditor.lacounty.gov.
“We receive over 1,300 tips annually and have more than 1,000 cases currently under active investigation by OCI and other departmental investigation units,” said Assistant Auditor-Controller and Chief Audit Executive Robert Campbell. “We are committed to following these leads and making sure that fraudsters suffer the consequences, including termination for those who hold County jobs, and seek restitution whenever possible.”
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, in its annual report on global fraud trends, estimates that as much as five percent of all government and private revenues are lost to fraud. Fraud diverts resources from essential services and erodes public trust in government.
The Auditor-Controller’s Office of County Investigations conducts criminal and administrative investigations of the most serious allegations and works closely with the District Attorney and Sheriff to ensure that those who commit fraud against the County are held accountable. This has resulted in felony grand theft charges recently being filed by the District Attorney against 13 County employees for allegedly stealing a combined $437,383 in state unemployment benefits between 2020 and 2023, for example.
The Auditor-Controller also recently launched a dedicated hotline to report fraud related to claims of childhood sexual abuse under AB 218, one of multiple anti-fraud protections to help ensure that taxpayer dollars go to victims who suffered abuse and fraudulent claims are identified. That number is (844) 901-0001 and anyone can also report AB 218 fraud at fraud.lacounty.gov/AB218.
More information about the Auditor-Controller’s fraud prevention program–including the investigative process, County policies and annual reports–can be found at: fraud.lacounty.gov.