In seeking to quickly spend trillions in relief aid, the government conducted little oversight during the pandemic’s early stages, leading to he greatest grift in US history.
“Here was this sort of endless pot of money that anyone could access,” said Dan Fruchter, chief of the fraud and white-collar crime unit at the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Washington. “Folks kind of fooled themselves into thinking that it was a socially acceptable thing to do, even though it wasn’t legal.”
Horowitz told the AP he was sticking with that estimate, but won’t be certain about the number until he gets more solid data. Never has so much federal emergency aid been injected into the U.S. economy so quickly. “The largest rescue package in American history,” U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told Congress.program, for example, succeeded 99% of the time in getting economic stimulus checks to the proper taxpayers, according to the tax agency. Nevertheless, that 1% failure rate translated into nearly $8 billion going to “ineligible individuals,” a Treasury Department inspector general told AP.
In the haste, guardrails to protect federal money were dropped. Prospective borrowers were allowed to “self-certify” that their loan applications were true. The CARES Act also barred SBA from looking at tax return transcripts that could have weeded out shady or undeserving applicants, a decision eventually reversed at the end of 2020.
In an interview, SBA Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware declined to say what the new fraud estimate for both programs will be. A 2022 study from the University of Texas at Austin found almost five times as many suspicious Paycheck Protection loans as the $20 billion SBA’s inspector general has reported so far. The research, led by finance professor John Griffin, found as much as $117 billion in questionable and possibly fraudulent loans, citing indicators such as non-registered businesses and multiple loans to the same address.
“24 hours? 48 hours? Would that really have upended the program?” Horowitz said. “I don’t think it would have. And it was data sitting there. It didn’t get checked.” In a statement, an SBA spokesperson declined to say whether the agency agrees with the figures issued by Ware’s office, saying the federal government has not developed an accepted system for assessing fraud in government programs. Previous analyses have pointed to “potential fraud” or “fraud indicators” in a manner that conveys those numbers as a true fraud estimate when they are not, according to the statement.
Fraud in pandemic unemployment assistance programs stands at $76 billion, according to congressional testimony from Labor Department Inspector General Larry Turner. That’s a conservative estimate. Another $115 billion mistakenly went to people who should not have received the benefits, according to his testimony.
Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services reported in February $1 billion in fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims and another $4.8 billion in overpayments.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The Great Grift: How billions in COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wastedMuch of the theft was brazen, even simple. Fraudsters used the Social Security numbers of dead people and federal prisoners to get unemployment checks. Cheaters collected those benefits in multiple states. And federal loan applicants weren’t cross-checked against a Treasury Department database that would have raised red flags about sketchy borrowers.
Read more »
Essay | Great Books Can Heal Our Divided CampusesTo make diversity a real educational asset, colleges need to bring students of different backgrounds together to wrestle with the humanities' big questions, writes Andrew Delbanco.
Read more »
‘Mortal Kombat 1’ made a great first impression at SGF 2023 | EngadgetThe Mortal Kombat team has decided to shake up the plot and reinvent characters for this 2023 reboot.
Read more »
Leaders of Great Lakes cities, including Waukegan and Zion, converge to address climate actionIt's time for Illinois communities to prepare for climate change. That was the key message of this year's Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative annual meeting this month.
Read more »
10 Great Hollywood Stars Who Made Terrible WesternsFrom Harrison Ford to Johnny Depp, a lot of great Hollywood stars have tried their hands at Westerns, but they've made some pretty terrible ones.
Read more »
Best Netflix Games: Don't miss out on these great free gamesIf you subscribe to Netflix, you have access to dozens of free iOS and Android games - these are our favorites.
Read more »