Trump Medicare chief Seema Verma
President Donald Trump‘s Medicare chief attempted to make taxpayers reimburse her for $47,000 worth of jewelry, clothing and other possessions that were stolen from her luggage during a work-related trip.
Documents obtained by Politico show that Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filed a $47,000 claim for lost property on Aug. 20, 2018, after her bags were stolen while she was giving a speech in San Francisco.
Her luggage was stolen out of her rented Chevrolet Tahoe SUV on July 25, 2018, while she was giving a speech attacking “Medicare for All” proposals at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club. According to the police report, she initially estimated the cost of her lost property at $20,000, but upped the valuation when filing her claim to the health department.
Verma claimed that the nearly two dozen pieces of jewelry which were stolen were valued at $43,065, based off a jeweler’s appraisal three weeks after the items were stolen. One of the stolen items was an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant that the jeweler valued at $5,900.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of political news in your in-box.
We find the news you need to know, so you don't have to.
Verma’s claim included $43,065 for about two dozen pieces of jewelry, based off an appraisal she’d received from a jeweler about three weeks after the theft. Among Verma’s stolen jewelry was an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, made of gold, prasiolite and diamonds, that Verma’s jeweler valued at $5,900.
She also requested about $2,000 for her stolen clothes and another $2,000 to cover the cost of other stolen goods, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones.
The federal health department ultimately reimbursed Verma $2,852.40 for her claim, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told Politico, noting that the department has a longstanding policy of paying for goods stolen during a work trip, so long as they “are not inherently for other uses.”
“When paying for such goods, the department pays a discounted rate based on age for the items that were lost,” the spokesperson said. “It’s perfectly appropriate that the administrator filed a personal property loss claim for goods stolen while on work travel and this is not an unusual practice for federal employees.”
The spokesman noted that the department also has a policy of not reimbursing for stolen jewelry.
Former President Barack Obama criticized the inaction of Democrats at a fundraiser in New Jersey.…
Last week, the X account for Elmo, the beloved Sesame Street character, was hacked. During…
The U.S.-backed aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has come under scrutiny amid speculation…
Donald Trump signed his "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law on July 4. It included a…
According to state records, Texas has failed to spend nearly $225 million in federal disaster…
Richard Grenell, a special presidential envoy and president of the Kennedy Center, has been vocal…