Money. (Photo:public domain)
Friday, December 12, 2025
Where Democrats rule corruption is built in
California corruption crisis infests Newsom’s Sacramento — the public must know the truth
The recent federal indictment of Dana Williamson — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff — should come as no surprise: It’s the latest example of a thoroughly corrupt Sacramento political culture that afflicts both parties.
But as bad as you may think the corruption is, I can tell you first-hand that it is much worse.
For Democrats, supermajority status has resulted in a “might makes right” attitude of abusing their power to impose their will — and to help themselves.
Worse, because Democrats control almost all the levers of state and local law enforcement (including the state attorney general’s office and most local district attorneys’ offices), bad behavior has been toleratedbecause of party loyalty.
Democrats don’t often call out other Democrats for corruption.
The problem with Sacramento’s corruption extends beyond ethically-challenged politicians.
audit finds half of commercial trucking licenses went to illegal drivers
DOT threatens to pull $73M from NY after audit finds half of commercial trucking licenses went to illegal drivers
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Friday to yank $73 million in federal highway funding meant for New York after an audit found more than half of the Empire State’s commercial trucking licenses were issued to foreign-born drivers in the US illegally.
“What New York does is if an applicant comes in and they have a work authorization — for 30 days, 60 days, one year — New York automatically issues them an eight-year commercial driver’s license,” Duffy said during a press conference at DOT headquarters in DC Friday. “That’s contrary to the law.”
'If taxpayers knew how bad it was, they would be outraged’: under Tim Walz watch
EXCLUSIVE: ‘If taxpayers knew how bad it was, they would be outraged’: County worker offers inside look at fraud
"If taxpayers knew how bad it was, they would be outraged," the state worker said. "The system is built in a way that people learn how to stay on it forever."
A Minnesota welfare worker says the state’s public benefits system is riddled with loopholes that enable large-scale fraud and frontline staff are often afraid to question suspicious cases for fear of being labeled racist.
The worker, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation, has worked in public assistance eligibility for several years and currently processes healthcare cases through the MNsure and Medical Assistance systems in one of the state’s larger counties.
“There are loopholes built into these programs,” the worker told Alpha News. “And people have learned exactly how to use them.”
The worker said they came forward because they believe Minnesotans are unaware of the scale — and the structure — of the problem.
“If taxpayers knew how bad it was, they would be outraged,” they said. “The system is built in a way that people learn how to stay on it forever.”
Religious-only marriages
One of the largest loopholes, the worker said, involves religious-only marriages, which are common among East African households they work with.
Couples who are married only through religious ceremony are treated in the system as unmarried parents — even when they live together and share children, the worker explained.
“They will say, ‘Yes, we’re married — but only religiously.’ And in the system, that means they are coded as unmarried,” the worker said.
“The mother claims all the children and the father’s income is entirely excluded. So they get the benefits of a single-parent household while living together as a two-parent family.”
The worker said they have “yet to see a Somali marriage that is court-documented” in the cases they process.
“It changes everything in the eligibility calculation. The lower the income, the more generous the benefits,” they said.
Polygamy and unreported households
The worker said some East African men maintain multiple religious-only marriages, allowing them to avoid reporting a spouse for public benefits because the unions are not legally recognized.
“Absolutely,” the worker said when asked whether some Somali men have multiple wives. “Some of them, not all of them, have multiple households, multiple wives here, although it is illegal in Minnesota.”
Because the marriages are not civil, the worker said women frequently claim the father does not live in the home — even when he rotates between households.
“That is how the mother can say that the dad doesn’t live in the home, because he’s not there full time,” the worker said. “The rule is she would have to say, if he sleeps there at all, she needs to report he’s in the home. But they get by with it.”
The worker said staff are discouraged from probing deeper.
“We can never question ethnicity, we could never question the whole religious marriage thing,” the worker said. “Everybody is walking on eggshells because heaven forbid we would do a fraud referral of someone of a different ethnicity.”
Families living overseas
The worker also described cases where Somali “refugee” families regularly travel back and forth to Africa — leaving the United States for extended periods — while taxpayer-funded benefits remain active.
“They can keep their SNAP assistance open while they are over there,” the worker said. Under SNAP rules, “the money just keeps getting piled up on their cards.”
They also said the monthly capitation payments continue to be paid to their health plans on even while they are living abroad.
“These are large families — eight, 10, 12 people. The state is paying hundreds to over a thousand dollars per person per month [in health insurance].”
The worker also questioned how large families on public assistance are able to fund repeated international travel.
“How could they afford to go to Africa? I think, wow, you have no job, you’re sitting on SNAP, on healthcare, and you can afford to go to Africa every two years? Where did you get that money? It’s expensive to fly to Africa,” they said.
‘It spreads like wildfire’: Worker says autism fraud is widespread
It’s now reported that autism claims to Minnesota Medicaid skyrocketed from $3 million in 2018 to $399 million in 2023. Federal prosecutors announced charges in September against Asha Farhan Hassan for her role in a $14 million scheme to defraud a state autism program. Authorities said the charges “mark the first in the ongoing investigation into fraud” in the program.
“This has just exploded,” said the worker. “Coworkers and community members agreed in a meeting that it seems ‘every Somali household has an autistic child now.’ And that never used to be.”
The county worker claims the autism fraud pipeline is concentrated in the East African demographic: “They are their own community and they’re close knit, and when word gets out about a program, for example, this autism, it spreads like wildfire,” the worker said.
Although the East African population is relatively small in the county, the worker said they “account for a vast majority of welfare, WIC, healthcare cases in the county, and almost, I would say 70% of this autism is fraud — at least.”
The worker said one trend appears again and again: families seeking an autism label because it unlocks a “plethora of benefits.”
“They are marking their child with an autism disability when they truly do not have it, or it is very, very mild,” the worker said. “They do that because it opens up a plethora of benefits from Social Security to the State Medical Review Team (SMRT), to TEFRA, to paid parent program … The fraud is just so big.”
The worker emphasized that the problem is not the existence of disability programs, but the people exploiting them.
“I know there are adults and children with disabilities that need these services. That’s what this program was intended for, and I want everybody who needs healthcare services to receive them, especially children,” the worker said. “It is unfortunate that the programs and system are being abused by those who do not need them for the sake of money. It truly takes away from those who really need it, and burdens the entire system.”
Alpha News inquiries
A DHS spokesperson told Alpha News “only legal marriages affect Minnesota Health Care Programs eligibility determinations.”
“Minnesota Health Care Programs follow state marriage laws that require a couple: Apply for a marriage license; be married by someone authorized to perform marriages; and obtain a marriage certificate that shows they are legally married,” DHS said.
When asked whether its data show a rise in autism-related Medical Assistance billing in the county or statewide, a DHS spokesperson said, “We will not be able to provide the requested analysis by your stated deadline.”
Alpha News asked DHS about the worker’s claim that some families remain enrolled in Minnesota Health Care Programs while living overseas for extended periods. A spokesperson said that “a person who resides overseas is not eligible for Minnesota Health Care Programs,” but noted that an enrollee “may remain eligible if they are temporarily absent from the state.” Under DHS policy, the agency added, “a family that is temporarily absent from the state for more than 30 days is disenrolled from their managed care plan.”
Alpha News also reached out to the county where the worker is employed but did not receive a response.
Following the money
Money. (Photo:public domain)
How Catholic Charities San Diego Transformed into a $80M Refugee Powerhouse on a Tide of Federal Dollars
From 2019 to 2023, the organization’s revenue more than sextupled, rocketing from $11.5 million to nearly $80 million—a surge fueled almost entirely by Uncle Sam’s checkbook
By Megan Barth, December 11, 2025 7:45 am
Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego, once a modest diocesan outpost serving the homeless and hungry, ballooned into a near $80 million juggernaut through an avalanche of government grants.
From 2019 to 2023, the organization’s revenue more than sextupled (6x), rocketing from $11.5 million to nearly $80 million—a surge fueled almost entirely by Uncle Sam’s checkbook, paid for by the American taxpayer.
At the epicenter of the surge?
Refugee resettlement, with a spotlight on President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan which spurred an Afghan “refugee” crisis, causing the California government to create new state programs to assist Afghani “newcomers” under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program. (The same program an Afghan national was a part of who murdered a national guardsman and critically injured another in Washington D.C. last month, the day before Thanksgiving).
Sharing the spotlight with the refugees from Kabul was the Biden Administration’s open border policies which, according to CCDSD’s CEO, led to migrants from over 100 countries being “dropped off” in San Diego. (see video below).
Through programs like the Afghan Support and Investment Program (ASIP), CCDSD became the statewide linchpin for housing, feeding, transporting, and integrating over 9,500+ Afghan newcomers.
The exact number of Afghan “newcomers” to date is unknown as both CCDSD and ASIP did not respond to our email.
Why was Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego (CCDSD) chosen by the California government for a partnership with the state?
One: its proximity to the southern border, and Two: California is broke.
According to a 2023 interview with CCDSD’s CEO Appaswamy “Vino” Pajanor, California is broke after spending over a billion dollars on “migrants dropped off” in the state during President Biden’s open border crisis, which Pajanor refers to as a “humanitarian crisis.”
During the interview, Pajanor reveals they have helped over 250,000 migrants in two years (2021-2023) and have found them housing within or outside of California. Yet, “over a four-year period of time, Catholic Charities says it’s served 405,000 migrants from 146 countries.”
“These individuals were legally processed” by ICE and DHS, some were released with “sicknesses,” Pajanor says.
WATCH:
Unpacking California’s $38M Afghan Support and Investment Program (ASIP)
As the Afghan Support and Investment Program (ASIP) is scheduled to wind down its final weeks—ceasing new enrollments after December 20, 2025—California’s experiment in refugee housing is a taxpayer-funded windfall for nonprofits, specifically CCDSD and its preferred contractors who raked in millions of taxpayer dollars.
Launched in March 2022 by the California Department of Social Services, Refugee Programs Bureau, ASIP funneled $38.2 million in federal funds from the Office of Refugee Resettlement into direct rental subsidies, utility aid, and minimal case management for Afghan arrivals under Operation Allies Welcome.
Split evenly between CCDSD and Northern California’s International Rescue Committee, the program provided up to 12 months of support for “eligible households”—primarily those released into California between July 31, 2021, and September 30, 2022, but the state extended the program through December 2025.
The 12 months of support included “free” rent, food, housing, utilities and healthcare for an estimated 9,500+ Afghan individuals and families who were dropped into California, providing up to $2,500 monthly for a family of five which covered rent, deposits, and utilities. Those who were dropped into San Diego with undisclosed “sicknesses” received “free” healthcare.
In Southern California alone, CCDSD reported an average of 37 household applications weekly, then spiked to 142 weekly by June 2022, just months after launch.
Reportedly, unemployed Afghan refugees were reassessed every three months by the Office of Refugee Resettlement Refugee Support Services to ensure progress towards finding employment.
| Metric | Value | Timeframe | Source |
| Applications Approved | ~1,500 households | Inception to July 2024 | CDSS RPB |
| Individuals Served | 6,500–9,500+ | Inception to Dec 2025 | CDSS/ASIP Reports |
| Early Housing Placements (Southern CA) | 1,034 individuals | March–June 2022 | CCDSD Presentation |
| Funding Disbursed | $38.2M total ($19.1M per region) | 2022–2025 | ORR/CDSS |
| Sunset Extension | From Sept 2023 to Dec 2025 (no new enrollments reported to date) | Ongoing | CDSS Update |
Trump and Taxpayers Lose the 2020 Election; Biden, CCDSD, Contractors and Migrants Win
By 2022 under President Joe Biden, Afghanistan was left in the hands of the Taliban and the U.S. border was wide open.
CCDSD’s revenue more than doubled to $32.6 million, grants at $31.9 million (a staggering 101.5% growth).
This wasn’t charitable giving; it was Biden’s Afghan Supplemental Appropriations Act, pumping $1 billion nationwide via the Office of Refugee Resettlement for “welcome corps” and housing.
CCDSD’s reported “Refugee Resettlement Assistance” for nearly 300,000 recipients totaled $47.8 million; “Stipends for Participants” for 45 recipients totaled over $400,000; and “Immigrant Services” surpassed $1 million for over 3,000 recipients.
Biden’s border crisis continued into 2023. That year, CCDSD reported $70 million revenue, $69.8 million in grants (a 118.6% surge).
Their 990s provide refugee metrics: “Refugee Resettlement Assistance” at $55.2 million for nearly 117,000 recipients; “Rental Assistance” totaling nearly $900,000 for 2,759 recipients; Nutrition added $440,467 for 26,476 individuals; and Flood Relief Assistance for 20 recipients added $20,865.
CCDSD Contractors Cash In
The 990s’ Part VII, Section B, spotlight the key cogs in the refugee machine: the top five highest-compensated independent contractors who provided everything from meal deliveries to “client” aid and charter transports.
For fiscal 2023 alone:
- Mishmash LLC (1805 Newton Ave, San Diego, CA 92113): $5,691,980 for meal delivery services—hot meals to shelters housing thousands of newcomers (Now permanently closed).
- The Courtroom (841 West A St, El Centro, CA 92243): $1,275,784 for client assistance. The address is likely a typo as there is no such address in El Centro. However 841 W Main Street was the address of The Courtroom restaurant which is also now permanently closed.
- Four M’s LLC (631 Camino Del Rio, San Diego, CA 92108): $2,376,360 for client assistance, supporting direct refugee intakes at the Ramada Suites by Wyndham. Menketh Yalda acts as the registered agent. He is based at the same address as the corporation’s principal address.
- Ranjan LLC (1093 Airport Rd, El Centro, CA 92243): $1,157,113 for client assistance, focused on border-proximate support for lodging at the Travelodge by Wyndham. The LLC was conveniently established on January 1, 2022 by Niral Munshaw from Anaheim CA, holding the position of Manager; Sandeep Patel from El Centro CA serves as the Manager.
- GOGO Charters LLC (6595 Roswell Rd, Ste G291, Atlanta, GA 30328): $592,300 for charters—busing Afghans from airports to safe houses.
In total, $11,093,537, or 16 percent of CCDSD expenses, were paid to these five contractors amid the 2022-2023 flood of Afghan refugees and migrants.
Trump and Taxpayers Win the 2024 Election, CCDSD Loses
Now, under President Trump, the taxpayer gravy train for CCDSD and other migrant-supporting-tax-exempt nonprofits has come to an abrupt halt.
As reported by NBC7 San Diego in March, 2025:
Catholic Charities of San Diego is putting the brakes on the busloads of asylum-seeking migrants it was taking to its Mission Valley shelter.
Now that there’s been a major border policy shift under President Donald Trump, the non-profit’s CEO says their contact with migrants at the border has dropped from an average of about 400-people a day, to just a handful a week.
“There’s not a humanitarian crisis,” said Vino Pajanor, Catholic Charities CEO. “For us, we have to always be responsible and accountable to the tax dollars that are invested into us as an agency.”
With the Trump administration freezing federal funding and cracking down at the border, Pajanor says the charity is now being forced to lay off people working in two of its migrant programs: refugee services and its migrant respite shelter.
At the peak of the migrant surge, Pajanor says the federal government gave them about $9 million worth of their $46 million budget for the year.
(Editor’s note: That isn’t what the 990s show)
Over a four-year period of time, Catholic Charities says it’s served 405,000 migrants from 146 countries.
With the federal funding freeze, Pajanor says his organization is pivoting in order to find funding.
“How can we support these individuals in a way through private philanthropy, through foundations coming and helping us, with the community wrapping themselves around us?” Pajanor said (emphasis added).
“Fundraising through private philanthropy and related foundations.” Isn’t that what tax-exempt charities are supposed to do?
California may be broke, but Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego and its contractors were thriving during the Biden Administration, while the average American citizen scraped to get by during those four years of skyrocketing inflation, an immigration-related spike in housing and rental costs, and ever-increasing utility bills and grocery bills. Afghan refugees and tens of millions of migrants didn’t have that problem, they were subsidized by American taxpayers.
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