Audit Unveils Alleged Frauds

One Los Angeles County employee, a social worker in the Department of Children and Family Services, used his county calling card to charge $86,000 in calls to Thailand.

A county health department employee submitted false medical leave paperwork to conceal his true whereabouts: jail.

Two other health workers and a probation employee were thought to be on extended medical leave when, in fact, they were dead.

Such are the alleged swindles and blunders that county Auditor-Controller J. Tyler McCauley said he uncovered in the last three months. Guided by tipsters who called the county’s Fraud Hotline (800-544-6861), 14 investigators closed 151 cases, including 35 that they were able to substantiate, between July 1 and Sept. 30.

The case of the chatty family services worker dialing Thailand on the county’s dime -- before and after he resigned in 2002 -- stands out in McCauley’s report among the other workers who allegedly forged timecards, used county computers to ogle porn or stole from a petty cash fund.

“It is outrageous,” McCauley said. “That’s why it’s called fraud.”

McCauley, who declined to name the employee, said the case had been forwarded to the district attorney for prosecution.

Louise Grasmehr, a Children and Family Services spokeswoman, said the department gives social workers international calling cards to handle cases involving foster children whose families live abroad.

“We’ve tightened up our monitoring so when people leave, we deactivate their cards,” she said.

The jailed worker who pretended that he was caring for an ailing family member, according to the report, faces disciplinary action and must pay $2,030 in restitution for undeserved pay.

And the case of the dead employees on medical leave -- including one whose county-approved leave outlasted him by 16 years -- cost the county no money, said Marion Romeis, head of the auditor’s office of county investigations. The leaves were unpaid.