The Octomom welfare fraud case against Nadya Suleman has reportedly expanded into 2013. The notorious mother of 14 was already under investigation by the Los Angeles County Dept. of Welfare Fraud Prevention and Investigation (WFP&I) for applying for an undescribed amount of welfare benefits in 2012 even though she may have earned as much as $200,000.
Welfare benefits for a woman with 14 children are cut off if she’s earning more than $119,000 in a year. Therefore, if Octomom actually collected the benefits, she may have underreported her true income from adult film and stripping gigs.
On Saturday, there was a new report that Octomom’s welfare fraud cheating could have continued well into 2013.
In June, welfare fraud officials reportedly got a warrant to search Nadya Suleman’s financial and employment records. They appeared to target the so-called Octomom’s home as well as the office of her manager.
At that time, Los Angeles County didn’t comment on the ongoing investigation. Octomom didn’t comment either.
On Saturday, gossip site TMZ said that they had exclusive information about the Octomom welfare fraud cheating — and they reported some hard numbers. They said that in the five months from January to May 2013, she collected $6,666 in cash assistance and $9,016 in food stamps that she wasn’t entitled to for a total of almost $15,700.
But that could mean the fraud continued even after Nadya Suleman already knew that she was under investigation — and presumably after Los Angeles County should have known that she likely had a higher income than she may have reported to their welfare office.
Los Angeles County has an active welfare fraud program that solicits information from the members of the public if they know of any case of welfare fraud . Informants do get paid for tips that pan out. As of March 2013, the County claimed that they had discovered $16 million in fraudulent overpayments spanning 22,000 separate cases.
But so far Los Angeles County still hasn’t come forward with a statement about Nadya Suleman and the alleged Octomom welfare fraud.
[Octomom photo by s_bukley / Shutterstock.com ]