US EditionAudit: Fraudsters stole $79B COVID-19 aid using false Social Security numbers
- Congress passed the largest bailout in history, injecting $5 trillion to prevent a financial and health collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- This urgent response led to weakened identity checks, leaving programs vulnerable to fraud through thousands of applications using stolen or invalid Social Security numbers.
- A review of 662,000 applications found nearly 24,000 discrepancies in Social Security data, and federal agencies paid almost $80 billion to potentially fraudulent claims.
- Senator Joni Ernst stated coronavirus aid fraudsters 'bilked taxpayers out of $79 billion' due to the government's failure to apply basic safeguards before payments.
- The report urges implementing Social Security number verifications and pre-award checks to prevent future fraud, prompting Ernst to introduce the DOGE in Spending Act requiring such safeguards.
16 Articles
16 Articles
InsideNoVA.com
Audit: Fraudsters stole $79B COVID-19 aid using false Social Security numbers
(The Center Square) – A federal committee tasked with tracking pandemic assistance fraud found that the Small Business Administration and the Department of Labor together disbursed nearly $80 billion to potential fraudsters.
Feds paid $80 billion to bogus Social Security numbers during pandemic
Federal companies paid almost $80 billion in pandemic cash to applications that utilized taken or void Social Security numbers, according to a brand-new guard dog report Wednesday that stated it ought to have been simple to stop them. The Pandemic Reaction Responsibility Committee stated the 3 huge programs, 2 bank loan and the improved welfare program, authorized in between 1.4 million and 1.5 million applications that utilized the phony number…
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