More Abuses by Planned Parenthood

California Scheming: Planned Parenthood Accused of $180 Million Fraud

Posted 03/11/08
From Family Research Council

The latest victim of Planned Parenthood’s exploitation appears to be none other than the California government. A former Vice President of Finance for the L.A. affiliate, P. Victor Gonzales, has filed a whistleblower suit in federal court, claiming that Planned Parenthood committed years of fraudulent overbilling against government-funded programs. Gonzales submitted documents spanning the late 1990s to 2004, including a series of audits, which suggest that the nation’s biggest abortion merchant may have swindled upward of $180 million from California taxpayers. Gonzales says he was fired in 2004 after repeated attempts to address the “illegal accounting, billing, and donation practices of Planned Parenthood” with his supervisors. According to Gonzales’s attorney, Planned Parenthood manipulated its status as a charitable organization in order to buy contraceptives at a discounted rate, then billed the state’s Medi-Cal program for 12 times as much as it paid. The Los Angeles Times obtained copies of the 2004 audit, which substantiates over $5.2 million in overbillings at the San Diego branch during fiscal year 2003 alone. In total, the overcharging is said to exceed $10,000,000 a year. In addition to the birth control scam, Gonzales also claims that the Los Angeles branch violated the IRS code that prohibits political advocacy from charitable organizations by forwarding about $12,000 a month to the Sacramento branch for “lobbying” expenses. At least one PPLA executive used a corporate credit card to make Victoria’s Secret and private video purchases on the government’s dime. And the list of alleged abuses goes on. Although the suit was filed in 2005, it was made public on Friday–much to the dismay of the PP spokesmen, who were already facing a public relations nightmare after tape recordings revealed that employees agreed to accept racially-motivated donations. We can only hope that California responds swiftly to investigate this charge of gross exploitation of taxpayer dollars. Regardless of the outcome, we urge the state to move quickly, as Virginia has done, to de-fund Planned Parenthood and end its relentless cycle of exploitation against women, children, and taxpayers!