There will never be a full accounting of COVID-19 aid fraud in the United States. Part of the reason is that no one in government really wants to know. The fact that the supposed guardians of the public purse got away with such incredible incompetence with few, if any, federal employees losing their jobs is criminal.
The best guess regarding losses of taxpayer money to fraud is $300 billion and rising. There’s at least another $125 billion that budget watchdogs considered “wasted.” Whose heads are rolling?
Not Julie Su, the former head of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency whose department doled out $180 billion in unemployment claims during the pandemic. Of that $180 billion, more than $32 billion was fraudulently given out. At least $2 billion went to inmates in various state prisons despite the criminals being ineligible for the cash. But Ms. Su is being rewarded for her incompetence and stupidity by being nominated to serve as Secretary of Labor.
“If you open up the bank window and say, give me your application and just promise me you really are who you say you are, you attract a lot of fraudsters and that’s what happened here,” Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, told the AP.
That same Justice Department is crowing about what they’re calling a “COVID fraud sweep” where 300 people were arrested for stealing a grand total of $830 million. That’s a drop in the bucket — a bucket the size of Texas, perhaps.
The best guess regarding losses of taxpayer money to fraud is $300 billion and rising. There’s at least another $125 billion that budget watchdogs considered “wasted.” Whose heads are rolling?
Not Julie Su, the former head of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency whose department doled out $180 billion in unemployment claims during the pandemic. Of that $180 billion, more than $32 billion was fraudulently given out. At least $2 billion went to inmates in various state prisons despite the criminals being ineligible for the cash. But Ms. Su is being rewarded for her incompetence and stupidity by being nominated to serve as Secretary of Labor.
“If you open up the bank window and say, give me your application and just promise me you really are who you say you are, you attract a lot of fraudsters and that’s what happened here,” Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, told the AP.
That same Justice Department is crowing about what they’re calling a “COVID fraud sweep” where 300 people were arrested for stealing a grand total of $830 million. That’s a drop in the bucket — a bucket the size of Texas, perhaps.
