Investigative journalist Nick Shirley has predicted that the fraud occurring in California could be as high as $500 billion, if not more.
Shirley, famous for his work in Minneapolis, appeared on Fox News’ “Fox News @ Night” this Wednesday evening to talk about his latest work, which was conducted in the blue hellhole of utopia.
Early in the interview, host Trace Gallagher asked Shirley how bad he thinks the fraud situation in California is:
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“Really bad,” the intrepid investigative journalist replied. “It’s obviously in the billions. It could be in the hundreds of billions. It could be 500 billion. Who really knows how bad the fraud is?”
“All that’s known,” he continued, “is that California keeps allocating more and more money for welfare programs like Medi-Cal, even though the state’s population isn’t going up. In fact, the population is declining.”
“If you look at just Medi-Cal, since 2022, they have doubled the budget, but there hasn’t been an increase in the population,” Shirley explained.
“Here in California, we’ve had over $100 billion allocated to some of these programs. And so you’re not seeing a rabid rise in population, but you are seeing a rapid rise in the budget that some of these departments get,” he added.
As part of his work, he’s been showing up at supposed state-funded daycares and demanding to see the children. Yet instead of complying, the daycare owners have almost always cried foul.
“If they had nothing to hide, they would simply answer the question,” he noted to Gallagher. “The reason that they freak out is because they have something to hide. That’s the problem.”
Shirley’s Fox News interview came a day after he published a 40-minute video to social media showing him confronting rude, secretive daycare and hospice care owners in California:
🚨 Here is the full 40 minutes of my crew and I exposing California fraud, Minnesota was big but California is even bigger… We uncovered over $170,000,000 in fraud as these fraudsters live in luxury with no consequences. Like it and share it, the fraud must STOP.
We ALL work… pic.twitter.com/7nWX9jL6NI
— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) March 17, 2026
In the video above, Shirley visited locations in Los Angeles and San Diego that were supposed to contain registered daycares or hospice centers, but instead had nothing but empty lots and residential homes.
According to Fox News affiliate station KTTV, Shirley didn’t just show up empty-handed. He came equipped with evidence.
“To verify his claims, Shirley used a mix of public and government datasets, including public records from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to identify facilities receiving high volumes of government funding,” the Los Angeles-based station reported.
“Other sources include the National Provider Identifier database to track the registration and active status of healthcare providers, as well as CCAP/CalWORKS records and official inspection logs from the California Department of Social Services that list violations and enrollment counts,” according to the station.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has, for his part, chosen to dismiss all of Shirley’s work and reporting, opting instead to mock the journalist:
Nick Shirley, right now pic.twitter.com/vWrp34Dmfa
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) March 17, 2026
Responding to the attack above during his Fox News appearance, Shirley slammed Newsom for not taking fraud seriously.
“The governor of California is an enemy to the people of California,” he said. “He’s literally working to support the fraudsters. Meanwhile, he could be working to expose the fraud. I mean, how stupid do you have to be to say, ‘Okay, let’s go after the guy who’s exposing the fraud, let’s not go after the fraudsters.’ That’s what he’s doing.”
Newsom’s trash-talking has also attracted backlash from Olympic bobsledding star Kaillie Humphries, who lives in California.
“As a California resident, I’m deeply concerned about the reports of alleged financial fraud and Governor Newsom’s apathy to it,” she told Fox News. “Aside from the reality that any financial fraud is wrong, the fact that this allegedly happened in the state that is slated to host the 2028 Olympics is even more concerning.”
“Ahead of America hosting the world in the LA 28 Olympics, California and its leadership, including Governor Newsom, need to address these serious allegations and ensure that all U.S. taxpayer money spent at the Olympics is properly accounted for,” she added.
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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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