Attorney General Knudsen joins Trump Administration’s anti-fraud roundtable

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen joined Vice President JD Vance, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and a coalition of 15-state attorneys general today for an anti-fraud roundtable to discuss coordinated efforts to combat wasteful spending, abuse, and fraud in federal benefit programs.

The White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud was established by President Donald J. Trump earlier this month as an initiative of the Trump Administration to partner with state and local governments to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure government assistance programs such as Medicaid and SNAP are directed to those who need them. The Montana Department of Justice’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) is responsible for investigating and prosecuting healthcare providers that defraud the Montana Medicaid program or those providers who abuse, neglect, and exploit patients in Medicaid-funded care facilities.

“I am thrilled to see the Trump Administration working alongside state attorneys general across the country to crack down on fraud, a partnership that did not exist under the previous administration,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “The Montana Department of Justice be better positioned to pursue bad actors and hold criminals accountable while working with the federal government. I appreciate Vice President Vance’s work on this issue. Fraud against Montana taxpayers will not be tolerated.”

So far this year, MFCU has investigated and successfully prosecuted several Medicaid fraud cases across the state, resulting in more than $187,709 in restitution and exposing stolen taxpayer-funded healthcare dollars through false billings and fraudulent in-home care services. The MFCU also pursues civil cases under the False Claims Act and recently settled a case against a licensed clinical professional counselor who had inadequate record-keeping, agreeing to pay $25,000 to the Medicaid program. MFCU conducted a separate investigation, involving a dentist who is alleged to have provided unnecessary services to children, totaling $2,000,000. This case remains pending. 

The Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance James Brown also uncovered a massive fraud scheme and recovered nearly $37 million in fraudulent Obamacare billings. The investigation involved members of Montana’s native community who were convinced to disenroll from Medicaid and enroll in Obamacare, then transported to facilities in California and Arizona where the Montana insurance companies were billed up to $9,000 per day for services that in some cases did not exist.