NY AG Candidate Komatireddy Accuses Letitia James of Letting Medicaid Fraud Recoveries Collapse
Republican New York attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy is making Medicaid fraud enforcement a centerpiece of her campaign, accusing incumbent Attorney General Letitia James of allowing annual fraud recoveries to fall from $168 million in 2019 to just $31 million in 2024. Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, says the decline has cost New York taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and demands a sharper prosecutorial posture from the state's top law enforcement office.
Republican New York attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy is making Medicaid fraud enforcement a centerpiece of her campaign, accusing incumbent Attorney General Letitia James of allowing annual fraud recoveries to fall from $168 million in 2019 to just $31 million in 2024. Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, says the decline has cost New York taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and demands a sharper prosecutorial posture from the state's top law enforcement office.
A Record of Declining Recoveries
Komatireddy draws a direct line between James's tenure and a sustained drop in Medicaid fraud enforcement, citing figures from the New York Attorney General's own annual reports. Under Democratic predecessors, the numbers tell a different story: Eliot Spitzer's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recovered $243.6 million in 2006, and Andrew Cuomo's office posted more than $660 million in its first three years, including $283 million in 2009 alone. Eric Schneiderman's office recovered more than $335 million in 2012, the second-highest annual total in the unit's history.
Komatireddy also flags a collapse in criminal convictions. The unit once produced roughly 100 criminal convictions annually; she said one year under James yielded eight.
Spending Up, Results Down
The resource argument cuts sharply against James. New York's expenditure on the fraud recovery program rose from roughly $45 million in fiscal 2020 to $70 million in 2025, even as recoveries compressed. Komatireddy frames the gap as a management failure, not a funding one, and has pledged to add 20 criminal prosecutors to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit if elected.
The James office did not respond to a request for comment.
Federal Pressure and the National Backdrop
New York's performance has drawn federal scrutiny. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this year requesting information on how the state screens providers and combats fraud. New York was one of only three states — alongside California and Minnesota — to receive the inquiry.
The Minnesota Medicaid scandal, which exposed billions in alleged fraud tied to public assistance programs, has sharpened the national debate. Vice President JD Vance is leading a federal effort to intensify enforcement, and Republican candidates in attorney general contests across the country are pressing their states to act.
Komatireddy, who spent more than a decade in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and later served as chief of staff at the Drug Enforcement Administration, is pitching the race as a contrast in prosecutorial credibility. She argues that aggressive Medicaid enforcement would reduce pressure on Albany to raise taxes, saying recovered fraud dollars represent direct fiscal relief for state budgets already stretched thin.