Fraudsters may be attempting to exploit the county’s $4 billion settlement fund for sex abuse victims, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman revealed in a dramatic courtroom hearing Monday, telling a judge that as many as 81% of the claims could be fraudulent.
Hochman outlined the alleged schemes investigators have uncovered, including individuals filing claims despite never having been housed at the facilities where the abuse allegedly occurred.
He warned the suspected fraud threatens to undermine one of the largest sex abuse compensation payouts in history and divert funds away from legitimate victims in addressing Judge Lawrence Riff.
Hochman said investigators have also spoken with claimants who admitted their lawsuits were not legitimate and pointed to alleged medical fraud tied to the claims.
“We have spoken to medical providers who said that when someone claimed that provider signed a certificate of merit allowing the lawsuit to proceed, the signature was not authentic,” Hochman told the court.
He added that some evidence came from databases accessible only to his office and said he wanted sufficient time to determine whether prosecutors could “prove fraud beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The request was met with emphatic opposition by multiple attorneys representing the victims of sexual abuse. Raymond Boucher argued to the judge that it was time to pay these clients, some of which are “On the fringe of being able to live with tremendous hardships,” he said.
“They are in dire need of this money. We negotiated for that process. It sickens me”
“I believe some of my clients will die before they get paid,” Boucher said to the judge.
Hochman made it clear that he supports payouts to child sex abuse survivors, but said he will go after people committing fraud. He also said that hardship cases could be investigated first and once cleared the money could go out.
At one point the judge asked why the DA and a lawyer representing LA County didn’t share the same position. “The court wants more. If there is fraud why does the county think it should make the payments?” he asked.
His answer was that he was worried about lawsuits against the county doing irreparable harm.
The judge ultimately decided that more paperwork needed to be filed and gave a June 22nd deadline to get everything in. The parties will meet again July 25th in the Los Angeles courtroom, and agreed that no payments would be made until that date.
After the hearing, Hochman doubled down on the 81%. “The numbers are extremely significant, so significant that we went into civil court today to ask the judge to stop the disbursement of these funds for 6 months.”
The LA County Board of Supervisors agreed to pay out on more than 11,000 claims of sexual abuse from victims previously in custody at juvenile halls, foster homes and children’s shelters.
The agreement reached in April 2025 surpassed the $2.6 billion sexual abuse settlement reached with the Boy Scouts of America in 2022.
The claims relate to abuse allegations dating back to 1959, but the majority of cases range between the 1980s and 2000s, according to Los Angeles County officials
The sexual abuse is alleged to have taken place at Probation Department facilities and the now-closed MacLaren Children’s Center.
Victims were able to sue because of a law that came into force in 2020 that suspended the statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse victims to bring cases for three years.