In the midst of the pandemic, the U.S. government gave unemployment benefits to the incarcerated, the imaginary and the dead. It sent money to "farms" that turned out to be front yards. It paid people who were on the government's "Do Not Pay List." It gave loans to 342 people who said their name was 'N/A'
President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. Biden signed bills extending the statute of limitations for some pandemic-related fraud to 10 years. (Pete Marovich/The New York Times)
In the midst of the pandemic, the U.S. government gave unemployment benefits to the incarcerated, the imaginary and the dead. It sent money to “farms” that turned out to be front yards. It paid people who were on the government’s “Do Not Pay List.” It gave loans to 342 people who said their name was “N/A.”
As the coronavirus shuttered businesses and forced people out of work, the federal government sent a flood of relief money into programs aimed at helping the newly unemployed and bolstering the economy. That included $3.1 trillion that former President Donald Trump approved in 2020, followed by a $1.9 trillion package signed into law in 2021 by President Joe Biden.
But those dollars came with few strings and minimal oversight. The result: one of the largest frauds in American history, with billions of dollars stolen by thousands of people, including at least one amateur who boasted of his criminal activity on YouTube.
Now, prosecutors are trying to catch up.
There are currently 500 people working on pandemic-fraud cases across the offices of 21 inspectors general, plus investigators from the FBI, the Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service and the IRS.
©2019 New York Times News Service