Los Angeles County is seeking to pause payouts under a $4 billion child sexual abuse settlement as authorities investigate what prosecutors described as “significant allegations of fraud,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
The DA’s office announced that it filed a motion Thursday, asking a Superior Court judge to delay the payments until the end of 2026. The 34-page motion noted that investigators believe more than 80% of the claims were fabricated.
“Premature disbursement continues to pose a substantial risk of interfering with its investigation by complicating witness cooperation, obscuring financial trails, and impairing the office’s ability to identify and prosecute fraudulent activity, as well as unjustly enriching those engaged in fraud at the expense of true victims,” the motion stated.
The announcement came more than a year after the LA County Board of Supervisors approved the $4 billion to settle sexual abuse claims — one of the largest sex abuse settlements in U.S. history — made by more than 7,000 people, with some of the alleged incidents dating back to 1959. Some of the abuse cases allegedly happened at LA County facilities, such as
Then about six months later, the DA’s office announced it’s investigating bogus damage claims after the LA Time reported that some plaintiffs in the $4 billion sex abuse settlement were paid by vendors to sue the county. In some cases, according to the LA times, people were paid by an LA law firm to file false claims.
“Now the fraudsters come in a variety of different ways,” District Attorney Hochman said in a news conference in November 2025. “These can be individual claimants that never suffered sexual abuse. At any point, at the hands of Los Angeles County, but they looked at this potential settlement as a way to get some free money.”
A hearing for the motion was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday, June 15, according to the DA’s office.
“This intervention is critical to safeguarding the rights of the legitimate child abuse survivors, including preserving the integrity of the settlement process,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “It will also help ensure that individuals who have allegedly filed fraudulent claims are held accountable for exploiting the horrific abuse and trauma experienced by genuine survivors.”
Anyone with information on allegedly false sex abuse claims or payments for false claims was urged to contact a county AB 218 fraud hotline at 844-901-0001 or visit fraud.lacounty.gov/ab218.