{"id":135376,"date":"2021-02-15T21:16:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T02:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=135376"},"modified":"2021-02-15T21:43:09","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T02:43:09","slug":"report-staggering-levels-of-fraud-with-more-than-100-billion-in-covid-19-aid-misspent-or-stolen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-staggering-levels-of-fraud-with-more-than-100-billion-in-covid-19-aid-misspent-or-stolen\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: \u2018Staggering\u2019 Levels Of Fraud, With More Than $100 Billion In Covid-19 Aid \u2018Misspent\u2019 Or Stolen"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-staggering-levels-of-fraud-with-more-than-100-billion-in-covid-19-aid-misspent-or-stolen%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=135376&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-120814980-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>\u201cThe scale of the fraud in the unemployment program created by the CARES Act has reached a staggering level,\u201d according to a damning report from NBC News.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/how-billions-pandemic-aid-was-swindled-con-artists-crime-syndicates-n1257766\"><span>report<\/span><\/a> <span>begins by discussing a fraud scheme which \u201ccost taxpayers an estimated $11 million,\u201d according to Orange County prosecutors. Nguyen Social Services are claimed to have been charging \u201cup to $700 a pop to file false unemployment claims for people who did not qualify to receive Covid-19 relief money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis isn\u2019t just an Orange County problem. It isn\u2019t just a California problem,\u201d said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. \u201cThis is a breakdown of catastrophic proportions that has failed the American taxpayer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While the Labor Department inspector general has not completed their full investigation, the NBC News report suggested that they estimated \u201cat least $63 billion of the $630 billion in disbursements has been misspent,\u201d with the \u201cfull scope of the loss in taxpayer funds\u201d likely to be well beyond $100 billion, according to experts and officials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cA rush to release the funds put enormous strain on state workforce agencies, creating a bonanza for individual scam artists and international cybercrime rings,\u201d the report continued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a high wire act,\u201d said Bill McCamley, Cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, as reported by<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/01\/05\/scammers-have-taken-36-billion-in-fraudulent-unemployment-payments-.html\"><span>CNBC<\/span><\/a> <span>in early January. \u201cBecause there\u2019s so much pressure to get money out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed in March, with $360 billion in total unemployment funding provided.<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/politics\/unemployment-fraud-labor-department\"><span>Fox Business<\/span><\/a> <span>reported on January 7 that the Department of Labor\u2019s Office of the Inspector General estimated \u201c<\/span><span>that at least $36 billion worth of unemployment payments expended as of Nov. 7 may have been invalid.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One specific element of the CARES Act \u201cflagged as high-risk by the Labor Department\u2019s inspector general\u201d is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which was \u201caimed at helping gig workers, caregivers and people who are self-employed, all of whom are not typically eligible for unemployment insurance.\u201d With \u201cno former employer to verify this category of claims,\u201d states had to rely on self-reported work histories. As a further negative outcome fueled by pressure to move quickly, \u201cmany states also relaxed internal controls\u201d in order to increase the approval rate of incoming claims.<\/p>\n<p><span>California is reportedly one of the few states to launch a review and investigation of Covid-19 relief programs. According to NBC News, officials in California \u201c<\/span><span>said they have tallied $11 billion stolen from taxpayers so far, but the total figure could be as high as $30 billion, or 27 percent.\u201d In Nebraska, matters are even worse, with early reviews which looked at statewide payments through June finding \u201croughly 66 percent of unemployment money was misspent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIn California, this is unquestionably the largest fraud against public agencies in our history,\u201d said president of the California District Attorneys Association, Vern Pierson. \u201cIncreasingly we are learning there could be fraud of historic proportions nationwide. While we don\u2019t know the exact price tag, we know the amount of the loss of taxpayers is staggering.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe scale of the fraud in the unemployment program created by the CARES Act has reached a staggering level,\u201d according to a damning report from NBC News. The report begins &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2181329,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-120814980-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Report: \u2018Staggering\u2019 Levels Of Fraud, With More Than $100 Billion In Covid-19 Aid \u2018Misspent\u2019 Or Stolen","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-120814980-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Report: \u2018Staggering\u2019 Levels Of Fraud, With More Than $100 Billion In Covid-19 Aid \u2018Misspent\u2019 Or Stolen","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2181329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}