Los Angeles County DA launches probe into fraudulent claims in $4 billion sex abuse settlement
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- District Attorney Nathan Hochman has a warning for people who take advantage of a $4 billion settlement filed against Los Angeles County for sex abuse survivors and victims.
He's pulling no punches when it comes to determining which claims are real and which ones are not.
There are thousands of legitimate victims of abuse in Los Angeles County facilities, but Hochman says fraudsters are trying to take advantage of that.
"They looked at this opportunity to compensate these true victims of sex abuse as an opportunity to personally profit and engage in some of the most greedy and heinous conduct at the expense of these victims," Hochman said.
There has been a surge of claims filed after AB 218 allowed victims to come forward with allegations dating back to the 1950s.
"AB 218 -- it is going to control the financial health of every county, every city and every school district for the next 25 to 30 years," Hochman said.
Earlier this year, the county approved an $828 million settlement with 414 plaintiffs alleging abuse by county workers during childhood. It follows a prior $4 billion agreement covering roughly 11,000 claimants.
SEE ALSO: LA County reaches $828 million abuse claims settlement on top of previous $4 billion accord
Hochman explained that many of the claims reach back decades, making verification extremely difficult because old juvenile records are destroyed after 10 years.
"So when these lawsuits came in saying that this had happened 20, 30, 40 years ago, there was no way, effectively, to defend against these lawsuits because we couldn't contest any of these claims," Hochman said.
Hochman is offering anyone who already filed a false claim to contact his office and cooperate, and in exchange, the district attorney will not use their statements against them in any criminal prosecution. To others, he promises swift action.
"We're going to go after them aggressively. We're going to go after them to put them behind bars," Hochman said.
The district attorney would not say how his office is investigating the claims and what alerts them to possible fraud, but he did say that there are certain questions and signs that are suspicious.
