Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on fraud: what the evidence says · JRE #2461
SUBJECT: FRAUD
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
We expected the cause of that program to be about $3 million a year in Minnesota, in Minneapolis. It got up in over a three-year period, it got up to $400 million a year. It was all fraudulent, almost.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Minnesota's Medicaid-funded autism therapy benefit, known as EIDBI, did grow at the scale Kennedy described: the Department of Justice reported that EIDBI claims "skyrocketed from over $600,000 in 2018 to over $400 million by 2025," a trajectory consistent with Kennedy's account of a program expected to cost a few million dollars a year ballooning to roughly $400 million annually within a few years. As HHS Secretary, Kennedy made these remarks alongside DOJ and CMS officials who in May 2026 announced criminal charges against 15 defendants, including the largest autism Medicaid fraud case ever charged by DOJ, an alleged $46.6 million scheme involving kickbacks to parents and billing for autism services that were not provided or not medically necessary. However, Kennedy's characterization that the program was "all fraudulent, almost" goes beyond what has been proven in court: as of the charges announced, prosecutors had charged specific schemes totaling roughly $90 million in the broader takedown (with the single largest autism case at $46.6 million), not the full $400 million in annual EIDBI spending, and separate Minnesota state reporting has found substantially smaller confirmed-fraud totals than some federal estimates. The dollar figures and program-growth trajectory Kennedy cited are well-supported by DOJ's own account; the claim that nearly the entire $400 million was fraudulent remains an estimate rather than an adjudicated fact.