California Watchdog Group Claims State Leaders Ignoring Widespread Fraud

Republican congressional candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux is leveling serious accusations against California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, claiming they have failed to address widespread fraud throughout the state despite clear evidence uncovered by her watchdog organization.

“Every day is opposite day when it comes to Gavin Newsom and Rob Bonta,” Le Roux told Fox News Digital. “Whatever they say, I generally believe the exact opposite is true and so when Gavin Newsom says that fraud is under control, what that means is that either he’s in on it or unwilling to do anything about it.”

Le Roux serves as director of CAL DOGE, a group founded in early 2026 by Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in California. The organization claims it has uncovered nearly $700 million in questionable spending since its inception, surpassing what state officials have accomplished in the same timeframe.

“We have been more effective with a group of volunteers in the last 10 weeks than Gavin Newsom and Rob Bonta have since they’ve been in office,” Le Roux asserted.

California has recently drawn national attention for fraud investigations across multiple sectors. The Trump administration has deployed resources to the state to investigate allegations involving healthcare, homelessness programs, and nonprofit organizations.

The hospice industry has become a particularly troubling example. During a congressional hearing Tuesday, Sheila Clark, president and CEO of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association, described a system rife with abuse. “You’d be amazed at how many hospices… the door you can walk up to in California and there is nobody there. Five months’ worth of mail that you can see stacked… nobody’s there,” Clark testified. “And that passed a survey. How did that happen?”

Le Roux contends these problems stem from systematic failures in oversight. In one instance, CAL DOGE claims to have discovered $370 million in cannabis tax revenue being routed through intermediaries and split into smaller grants directed toward seemingly unrelated programs.

“There is no oversight, not one report that is required to explain where the money is spent,” she said.

Le Roux estimates that California loses approximately $80 billion annually to “fraud, waste, or gross overpayments” due to this lack of proper supervision. She criticized Bonta’s office for allocating substantial resources to legal challenges against the Trump administration instead of addressing fraud at home.

“Rob Bonta’s office billed over 150,000 hours a year going after President Trump and the Trump administration’s policies that equates to almost 200 lawyers… which is one-sixth of his entire office, and larger than the DOJ office that’s actually doing something in California,” she claimed.

The congressional candidate, who is running in California’s 47th district and is a cousin of Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, launched her campaign in March with combating fraud as a central platform. She believes the problem reaches beyond state boundaries.

“When money flows into California and nothing is checked, that is an American problem, not a California problem,” Le Roux emphasized.

Governor Newsom’s administration has pushed back against such criticisms. His press office recently posted on social media that California is “leading the nation in preventing fraud,” citing statistics including “$125 billion+ in fraud STOPPED” and “1,200+ criminals ARRESTED” during Newsom’s tenure. The administration also highlighted an “83% reduction in EBT fraud in one year” and noted that new hospice licenses were banned beginning in 2022.

Regarding the hospice fraud allegations specifically, Newsom’s office has stated that enforcement primarily falls under federal jurisdiction, though Le Roux disputes this characterization.

“These hospice agencies that we are now in the process of shutting down were licensed by the state of California,” she countered. “They should have never been opened. Every piece of oversight that the state of California should have been administrating had not been happening.”

As federal investigations continue and political tensions rise, Le Roux and CAL DOGE say they are increasing pressure on officials to prosecute fraud cases more aggressively, claiming the issue transcends political lines.

“Newsom is trying to take credit for doing nothing instead of actually becoming a part of reform in our state, which is by the way, what not just Republicans, but independents and Democrats want desperately,” she said.