A California medical-supply firm has received $40 million from Medicaid despite seemingly not being a real, functioning business, even as its owner and husband have become filthy, filthy rich.
A City Journal investigation by Christopher Rufo and Madeleine Rowley found that the California medical-supply firm HeroCare received over $40 million from California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, while simultaneously leaving little public trace of a working business.
Medicaid records cited by Rufo and Rowley showed that HeroCare received about $40.5 million from Medi-Cal from 2020 through 2024. Year-by-year figures were approximately $7,800 in 2020; $396,500 in 2021; $5.68 million in 2022; $15.56 million in 2023; and $18.86 million in 2024.
The company portrayed itself as being in the business of mainly supplying pediatric respiratory supplies pertaining to tracheostomy, ventilation, oxygen, and similar home support. However, federal data cited by Rufo and Rowley showed that 30 percent of its Medicaid revenue came from urinary-catheter billing codes that had nothing to do with pediatric care.
As HeroCare collected more and more money from the government, its owner, Curtis Kurkova, and his husband, Christian, got richer and richer, as evidenced by their real estate purchases: a $28 million Hidden Hills estate, a $1.1 million Riverside County home, a $4.7 million Sherman Oaks home, a $1.45 million Big Bear home, and a $9.8 million Encino home.
BREAKING: The two men at the center of our $40 million Medicaid investigation have locked their social media accounts. pic.twitter.com/Za37G6RyEJ
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) September 2, 2026
Meanwhile, as they accumulated wealth, the couple proudly flaunted their newfound money on social media. For example, since-privated posts from Kurkova and his husband showed private-jet travel and luxury spending.
“It’s when you buy something for your business, and the government pays you back for it,” Christian wrote in a since-privated Instagram video showing him opening a box of shoes, according to Rufo and Rowley.
In 2023, Christian posted a picture of him and Kurkova kissing on a jet. He captioned the image by writing, “It’s giving Narcos, but the Moneys clean!”
Rufo noted in his CityJournal report that HeroCare’s public presence is extraordinarily thin and includes a sparse website with little or no information about Kurkova, an empty shop page, a Facebook page with few followers, unanswered phones, and a mailbox that won’t take messages.
When Rufo visited the business’s official address, things got even weirder.
EXCLUSIVE: A respiratory therapist named Curtis Kurkova billed California Medicaid $40 million, then spent millions on sports cars, private jets, luxury resorts, and an enormous mansion next to the Kardashian house.
The experts told us it had all the red flags for fraud. pic.twitter.com/kM6x8EzXno
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) September 2, 2026
“We wanted to take a look at their physical operation, so we drove to HeroCare’s address in Chino, but the business wasn’t there,” Rufo reported in the video above. “Next, we went to another of the company’s listed addresses in Van Nuys, and there was no sign of Hero Care at all.”
Two experts who spoke with Rufo and Rowley said outright that the company looks fraudulent. One of the experts was Sam Adolphsen, the former COO of Maine’s health department.
“Huge year-over-year billing increases, with claims for multiple types of urinary catheters, from a specialty respiratory shop, billed to nearly identical patient counts month after month, by a provider bragging about private jets—that raises a lot of questions that must be resolved,” he said.
“This appears to be, by definition, a credible allegation of fraud, in a state where the political leadership seems to totally ignore fraud,” he added.
Haywood Talcove, a fraud specialist who serves as the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government, argued that state and federal authorities should check HeroCare’s books.
“Medicaid fraud often reveals itself through outliers,” he said. “HeroCare Medical is a California-based respiratory equipment and supply company serving medically fragile children, including children who need tracheostomy, ventilation, oxygen, and other home respiratory support. That is an extremely small and vulnerable population.”
“The growth from roughly $8,000 in 2020 to more than $18.8 million in 2024—and about $40 million from 2020 through 2024—is the kind of statistical anomaly that demands a serious investigation. At a minimum, DOJ, HHS-OIG, and California Medicaid officials should determine whether the services were medically necessary, actually delivered, and properly billed,” he added.
Kurkova has evidently also written a very telling children’s book:
Incredible, the alleged fraudster in our City Journal investigation self-published a children’s book called “The Little White Lie” https://t.co/z3LLKeQaOq
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) September 2, 2026
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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