'Octomom' Charged with Welfare Fraud

LOS ANGELES – Nadya Suleman, who gained fame when she gave birth to octuplets in 2009, is due in court later this week on a welfare-fraud charge for allegedly failing to report nearly $30,000 in earnings from personal appearances and video residuals.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced Monday that the 38-year-old mother of 14 was charged Jan. 6 with one count of aid by misrepresentation and two counts of perjury by false application for aid.

Prosecutors have filed a warrant for her arrest, though Suleman is not expected to be taken into custody. She has been ordered to appear in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Friday, when prosecutors plan to ask for bail to be set at $25,000.

Suleman moved from Orange County to Palmdale in October 2012. She filed for public assistance in Lancaster last January, after a stint in rehab for anxiety and exhaustion depleted her savings, her representative said then.

Prosecutors allege Suleman failed to report the extra income she earned in the first six months of 2013.

If convicted as charged, she faces up to five years and eight months behind bars.