Date: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:15pm(PDT)
Subject: Santa Clara County Named in $400 Million False Claims Damages Suit

Santa Clara County Named in $400 Million
False Claims Damages Suit Over DFCS Fraud
Suit Alleges CPS Charged State and Federal Programs For Non Existent
Children

April 3, 2006

After a Federal False Claims Act suit was unsealed last week, the
County of Santa Clara has been served with a summons to appear on
charges of defrauding State and Federal Social Security funds for
Foster Care.

The suit alleges that the Department of Family and Children's
Services regularly bills the State and Federal Governments for
managing case files of children that do not exist. The attorney for
the case estimated the damages and fraud at about $400 million
dollars in State and Federal funds.

The Whistleblower in this case reportedly has copies of documents
that show DFCS Management and Supervisors ordered Social Workers to
bill for 5 children in one case rather than for the two children that
the mother actually gave birth to.

Dr. Karl Hoffower, the President of the South Bay Chapter of the
Citizens Commission on Human Rights said, "We have been receiving
complaints against DFCS for several years. Parents have brought
evidence of improper conduct on the part of Social Workers that never
made sense until now. By this suit it appears that DFCS Social
Workers have a monetary motivation behind their actions."

Dr. Hoffower went on to say, "This lawsuit could also be the
explanation for why 40% of the case files in the County's
2003 'Children of Color Study*', that investigated DFCS on charges of
racism, were missing. While it has always seemed odd that 40% of the
DFCS files were never found for that study, this lawsuit might have
the best explanation for that blunder... they just never existed to
begin with."

The suit further charges that several psychologists have assisted in
defrauding the State and Federal programs by billing for therapy
sessions that never took place. The Whistleblower alleges that DFCS
contracts with psychologists to perform therapy sessions to children
in the Foster Care System. Those sessions were reimbursed via a
prepaid contract with the County, yet the Whistleblower's claims no
refund was made when the sessions did not take place. In fact the
suit claims to have evidence that DFCS and the psychologists agreed
that the money didn't have to be paid back.

The former Ombudsman and current Legal Redress Officer for the
Silicon Valley NAACP, Ms. Nedra Jones said, "I knew there must be
some type of fraud going on with DFCS. This suit validates the
complaints we tried to bring to the attention of the County back in
2004. The deceitful actions and callous disregard for the truth was a
daily fight we experienced while trying to work with Social Workers
and DFCS Management. No wonder we had a hard time trying to help
right the wrongs of DFCS, they didn't want us looking too far into
their cases for fear of being found out."

If you think you have had your rights violated by Social Workers or
DFCS, call the CCHR hotline at 1-800-330-7290.


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