Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an unlawful business practices lawsuit against Sweetwater Care, an operator of nineteen California nursing homes scattered throughout the state (Butte, Colusa, Fresno, Kern, Lake, Madera, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Tehama, and Tulare Counties).  The complaint alleges that Sweetwater committed over 25,000 daily violations of the state’s minimum staffing laws between 2020 and 2024 which led to injurious resident falls, fractures, and pressure sores, sexual abuse, and terrible neglect.  Instead of paying workers to take care of residents, the complaint alleges the chain’s owners “extracted” tens of millions of taxpayer dollars by directing payments to self-owned third party entities (often called “related party transactions” or profit “tunnelling”).  The complaint states Sweetwater “engaged in a systemic chain-wide business practice of understaffing that prioritized facility acquisitions, growth, and profit, at the expense of compliance with their promises to patients and California laws.”