Controller Malia Cohen’s office is out of control

Malia Cohen wants to be reelected as controller for the state of California — but it looks like nothing is under control in her office.

Earlier this month, the state auditor found that the controller’s office had failed to recover overpayments to public employees, and that it failed to keep track of remote employees who were living out of state, in violation of the law. 

Now, as The California Post reported exclusively, a private lawsuit accuses the controller’s office of fudging addresses so that it can seize the assets of people abroad with no connection to California.

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Foreign investors were stunned to find their financial assets taken by the controller based on faulty addresses. In one case, the controller’s office appears to have listed the city of Cardiff, Wales, as Cardiff, Calif., a beach community in San Diego County.

California is notorious for considering almost anyone who has any contact with the state to be a “resident” for tax purposes, so it can force them to pay money into the state coffers.

No doubt some of the wealthy former Californians who are fleeing the potential “billionaire tax” have a tough fight ahead.

But that’s peanuts compared with allegedly faking local addresses. 

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And for a state that touts itself as the startup capital of the world, it’s a bad look to treat investors — foreign or domestic — as targets for manipulation, abuse and theft.

Cohen has pushed back against the idea that there is a major fraud problem in California. She wants voters to trust her with a second term, while reports come out seemingly every week about the latest fraud scandal in the state.

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The state controller should not be trying to put a brave face on government failure, but rather leading the fight.

Instead, Cohen has left the job of enforcing accountability to the federal government — and to citizen journalists like Nick Shirley. 

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Cohen’s Republican opponent in the November election, Herb Morgan, says that Cohen is incompetent, and lacks the judgment to be the state’s most important financial official.

Whether that is true or not will be up to the voters to decide. 

Regardless, Cohen’s failures aren’t some kind of political “October surprise,” hyped by her political opponent. 

The problems are coming out because they are impossible to suppress any longer.

The fact that voters have a chance to do something about it is a coincidence — and also an important opportunity.