{"id":666838,"date":"2026-09-11T16:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=666838"},"modified":"2026-09-11T16:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:04:27","slug":"nigerian-chieftain-allegedly-scams-california-out-of-34-million-to-live-the-high-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=666838","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian chieftain allegedly scams California out of $34 million to live the high life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While hard-working Americans struggle every spring to cover their tax bills, the rest of the world seemingly treats their hard-earned cash as a free-for-all.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve heard the stories of large-scale government benefit fraud in Minnesota involving individuals of Somali descent, robbing taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars, and a national of Azerbaijan just pleaded guilty in federal court this week to three counts of health care fraud in connection with a $137 million scheme targeting Medicare Advantage Programs.<\/p>\n

And now there\u2019s a report of a Nigerian chieftain billing Medicaid more than $36 million, before allegedly using the money to \u201csnap up\u201d luxury properties in California and build a magnificent palace in Abatete, Nigeria. He even built a golden statue of himself, according to independent journalist Christopher Rufo.<\/p>\n

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EXCLUSIVE: A Nigerian chieftain billed Medicaid more than $36 million, then snapped up luxury properties in California and built a magnificent palace in Abatete, Nigeria\u2014including a golden statue of himself.<\/p>\n

The experts told us it has all the red flags for fraud. pic.twitter.com\/P7qyuH3tbs<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Christopher Rufo (@christopherrufo) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Revenue from Chief Nathan Ogbatue\u2019s California Home Health Agency, a taxpayer-funded company providing in-home medical care and specialty treatments, jumped from under $2 million from 2018-2021 to more than $34 million over the next three years, coming as he dropped over $7 million in California real estate buys, including a $2.7 million Riverside mansion.<\/p>\n

Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government, spoke with the New York Post after reviewing CHHA\u2019s Medicaid data.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat jumps off the page isn\u2019t the amount being charged for each service; it\u2019s the extraordinary volume of services being billed,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis agency went from roughly half a million dollars in annual Medi-Cal payments to $17 million in 2023, while reaching the very top of the statewide distribution for the frequency of certain nursing and home-health-aide claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Haskins, a fraud expert and former investigator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the newspaper he was alarmed by CHHA\u2019s billing totals, small office, and failure to file mandatory disclosure forms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my experience, companies with unidentifiable employees, billing for a large number of services, and failing to supply a utilization report to the state for more than six years that would easily verify much of the information in question have all the earmarks of a fraudulent shell company that fabricates stolen patient and even NPI numbers to submit fabricated billings,\u201d Haskins said.<\/p>\n

Ogbatue has not been charged for any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re working hard and sending half your paycheck to Uncle Sam, while Nigerian chieftains are pulling millions out of Medicaid and building golden palaces in the deepest jungles of Africa,\u201d Rufo posted on X. \u201cAmerica is being looted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, it seems the American taxpayer is forced to play the role of sucker to the rest of the world, courtesy of hometown governments and politicians who can\u2019t be bothered enough to ensure a fraud-free process \u2014 of course, in too many cases, the stolen money seems to strangely find it\u2019s way into their coffers.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:<\/p>\n

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California is such an incompetently run state that they actually fell for a Nigerian Prince scam. https:\/\/t.co\/raTrcSFMMy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Gross. Our government is so bloated and corrupt we can\u2019t even look for fraud.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Joe C. (@JCBForumSpeak) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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pic.twitter.com\/atKoQp7XPk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Nigerian chiefs committing fraud in the US? Surely not.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alex Cranberg (@acranberg) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Fraud is the new California gold rush<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kenneth Schrupp (@kennethschrupp) September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While hard-working Americans struggle every spring to cover their tax bills, the rest of the world seemingly treats their hard-earned cash as a free-for-all. We\u2019ve heard the stories of large-scale government benefit fraud in Minnesota involving individuals of Somali descent, robbing taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars, and a national of Azerbaijan just pleaded… Continue reading Nigerian chieftain allegedly scams California out of $34 million to live the high life<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":666830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=666838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/666830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=666838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=666838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=666838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}