(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – You just knew this would happen during the “pandemic,” didn’t you? You knew there was so much money being shoved out the door by the federal government that fraudsters would take advantage of inadequate controls and enrich themselves, didn’t you?
As The Washington Post is reporting in, “U.S. watchdog estimates $45.6 billion in pandemic unemployment fraud“:
“A federal watchdog on Thursday found that fraudsters may have stolen $45.6 billion from the nation’s unemployment insurance program during the pandemic, using the Social Security numbers of dead people and other tactics to deceive and bilk the U.S. government.
“The new estimate is a dramatic increase from the roughly $16 billion in potential fraud identified a year ago, and it illustrates the immense task still ahead of Washington as it seeks to pinpoint the losses, recover the funds and hold criminals accountable for stealing from a vast array of federal relief programs.” [emphasis added]
You can read the complete account by clicking HERE.
Significantly, this is just an interim number as much data remains uncollected. The final figure will almost be certainly much higher.
What went wrong?
“‘Hundreds of billions in pandemic funds attracted fraudsters seeking to exploit the UI program — resulting in historic levels of fraud and other improper payments,’ Larry Turner, the inspector general for the Labor Department, said in a statement.”
As one pundit commented, “What did they expect when they pushed trillions of dollars through the federal funding pipeline at record speed with no real controls in place?”
What is your opinion? Are you at all surprised at this level of fraud? Please share your reaction and thoughts by emailing [email protected]. Thank you.
