{"id":83123,"date":"2026-06-01T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/fraudsters-bought-game-worn-kobe-bryant-sneakers-and-ferraris-with-taxpayer-funds\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T16:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:00:20","slug":"fraudsters-bought-game-worn-kobe-bryant-sneakers-and-ferraris-with-taxpayer-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/fraudsters-bought-game-worn-kobe-bryant-sneakers-and-ferraris-with-taxpayer-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraudsters bought game-worn Kobe Bryant sneakers and Ferraris with taxpayer funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>In a secret federal law enforcement warehouse in Southern California, dozens of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and stacks of coveted sports memorabilia \u2013 like Mickey Mantle rookie cards and game-worn Kobe Bryant sneakers \u2013 offer a modest testament to the mountains of taxpayer money being illegally diverted through fraud, law enforcement officials told CBS News.<\/p>\n<p>By some government estimates, at least $500 billion is lost to fraud schemes each year, though other sources, including those who consult with the government to track fraudulently-obtained funds, said the real figure is over $1 trillion. As the Trump administration has launched a crackdown on those cheating federal programs like Medicare, food assistance and <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/hospice-fraud-congress-hearing-suspected-scams\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">hospice care<\/a><\/span>, it is difficult to claw back the stolen funds, said Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It should offend every American taxpayer that these people are taking advantage of the system,&#8221; Essayli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Seizing physical assets has been a first step in those efforts, Essayli said as he climbed the driveway of an eight-bedroom, ten-bathroom compound on an isolated Orange County hilltop \u2013 the former home to convicted serial fraudster Paul Randall.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was living like a king off us,&#8221;Essayli said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/01\/65593f6f-f156-4e53-b9f0-04316096ee58\/thumbnail\/620x349g7\/b6eb3c0deffb3d859164eed832f22da5\/1780326728176.png#\" alt=\"1780326728176.png \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/01\/65593f6f-f156-4e53-b9f0-04316096ee58\/thumbnail\/620x349g7\/b6eb3c0deffb3d859164eed832f22da5\/1780326728176.png 1x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Paul Randall pleaded guilty this year in one of the largest medical fraud cases in California history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                CBS News<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Randall, who declined to be interviewed, was convicted of diverting more than $270 million in taxpayer funds in one of the largest California Medicaid fraud schemes in the state&#8217;s history.\u00a0 He pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud and faces up to 30 years in prison when he&#8217;s sentenced this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Essayli said Randall was out on bond awaiting sentencing on another federal fraud charge, one of six prior fraud convictions, when he started this latest scheme.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously there&#8217;s a breakdown in the criminal justice system if this guy was able to have six convictions and never did any real prison time,&#8221; Essayli said.<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of the stolen funds move out of the country before authorities have a chance to confiscate it, said Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Government.<\/p>\n<p>Talcove consults with the government on tracking illicit funds. He projects that $1 trillion is lost to fraud each year \u2014 and believes about 70% of that ends up in the hands of transnational criminal gangs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It goes to Russia, it goes to China, it goes to Nigeria, it goes to Romania,&#8221; Talcove said.<\/p>\n<p>Talcove&#8217;s investigations have shown criminals are getting more sophisticated. &#8220;Taxpayers are funding transnational criminals who are using this money for horrible things \u2014 child trafficking, drugs, threats to our democracy,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Essayli said that federal law enforcement is working on ways to better find and recover the stolen funds. But with money easily converted to digital currency and channeled overseas, federal agents are at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That is why it is so important that the money never goes out in the first place; that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important that we have systems in place to detect and prevent fraud,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/01\/460f36ea-7423-4606-bca2-0306148fac5f\/thumbnail\/620x349\/26418f89d0d1e07c6e693260db1e1ecf\/1780326765029.png#\" alt=\"1780326765029.png \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/06\/01\/460f36ea-7423-4606-bca2-0306148fac5f\/thumbnail\/620x349\/26418f89d0d1e07c6e693260db1e1ecf\/1780326765029.png 1x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Paul Randall pleaded guilty this year in one of the largest medical fraud cases in California history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                CBS News<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n        <\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins 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memorabilia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2402],"class_list":["post-83123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-fraud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fraudsters bought game-worn Kobe Bryant sneakers and Ferraris with taxpayer funds - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For law enforcement investigating fraud cases, the hard part can be following the money to figure out where the tax dollars have gone.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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