A new disturbing report found that the multi-trillion-dollar COVID relief and economic stimulus packages of 2020 and 2021 may be “the biggest fraud in the history of our country,” according to NBC News.
NBC News says the amounts are in the “hundreds of billions” of dollars in taxpayer money likely to have been fraudulently claimed and distributed.
The fraudsters bought Teslas, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, mansions, private jet flights, and swanky vacations. Many, about half, were international fraudsters.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Matthew Schneider, a former U.S. attorney from Michigan. “It is the biggest fraud in a generation.”
Most of the losses are considered unrecoverable. But there is still a chance to stanch the bleeding because federal officials say $600 billion still hasn’t gone out. Knowing this administration, they’ll probably send it out.
Speed was chosen over security.
“RIPE FOR PLUNDER”
In an exclusive interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said COVID relief programs were structured in ways that made them “ripe for plunder.”
He said both individual payments and those made through the Paycheck Protection Program were subject to inadequate oversight.
“And, of course, for fraudsters, that’s an invitation,” he added. “… What didn’t happen was even minimal checks to make sure that the money was getting to the right people at the right time.”
Haywood Talcove, CEO at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, explained how embarrassingly simple it was for people to receive undeserved money: Fraudsters went on state websites and took the names of existing businesses, or registered fake new businesses created out of whole cloth.
“There’s absolutely no security on there. There’s no validation of any information,” Talcove said. “And voila, you have company ABC with 40 employees and a payroll of $10 million. And you go and apply for a PPP loan. It was a piece of cake.”
DEAD PEOPLE TOO
To make matters worse, a recent inspector general’s report found that the IRS has handed out as much as $64 million in stimulus funds to dead people after President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law.
That was due to an IRS computer error allegedly.
At the same time, Biden wants another $5.8 trillion to waste. He just got over a trillion in a spending bill. He’s an insatiable fool. Our politicians are a disgrace.
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