{"id":1609253,"date":"2022-08-16T16:42:19","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T20:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1609253"},"modified":"2022-08-16T16:42:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T20:42:25","slug":"were-going-to-find-you-govt-struggles-to-prosecute-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-covid-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/were-going-to-find-you-govt-struggles-to-prosecute-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-covid-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re Going To Find You\u2019: Govt Struggles To Prosecute Billions Of Dollars\u2019 Worth Of Covid Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><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%2Fwere-going-to-find-you-govt-struggles-to-prosecute-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-covid-fraud%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=1609253&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\/2022\/08\/2021-03-10T203525Z_1740695772_RC2K8M9M5WNQ_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA-CONGRESS-scaled-e1660679727905.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>COVID-19-related government benefit programs relied on the honor system to combat abuse, resulting in massive fraud and costing the government as much as $100 billion, sources told The New York Times.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government distributed $5 trillion in pandemic aid through three pieces of legislation and relied on heavily on applicants\u2019 honesty when applying for benefits, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/16\/business\/economy\/covid-pandemic-fraud.html\"><span class=\"s1\">according<\/span><\/a> to the NYT. The aid programs were widely abused by individuals who gave the government fake names, listed fake businesses and provided other false information while applying for grants and other COVID-19 benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Unemployment claims and loan applications were rife with fraud, and efforts by the Labor Department and the Small Business Administration to screen applications let obvious cases of fraud slip through the cracks, according to the NYT. One person collected unemployment from 29 different states; one person received 10 loans for 10 different non-existent bathroom renovation businesses\u00a0using the email address of a burrito restaurant; one Postal Service employee received an $82,900 loan for a business called \u201cU.S. Postal Services.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"rev-more-content\">\n<p class=\"p1\">It remains unclear exactly how much money was stolen from the government through fraudulent use of COVID-19 aid programs, but it\u2019s likely at least in the tens of billions of dollars, Michael Horowitz, chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told the NYT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWould it surprise me if it exceeded $100 billion? No,\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Given the massive scale of the problem, many have gone unpunished for abuse and fraud involving pandemic aid programs, according to the NYT. Hannibal Ware, the Small Business Administration inspector general, said his office isn\u2019t pursuing cases where less than $10,000 was stolen and is instead focusing on large-scale theft and organized theft rings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">One of the individuals facing criminal charges over a COVID-19 scheme is Andrea Ayers, who prosecutors accuse of creating a franchise to consult others on how to abuse government aid programs, according to the NYT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cYou bake,\u201d she said in a text to a client along with four laughing emojis while allegedly advising her to tell the government she was opening a baking business, according to the NYT.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p class=\"p1\">The Rapper Nuke Bizzle was arrested and pleaded guilty to mail fraud after discussing false unemployment claims he had made on his YouTube channel and bragging about getting 30 prepaid debit cards in the mail in one day from unemployment programs in a song, according to the NYT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy message to those cheats out there is this: You can\u2019t hide. We\u2019re going to find you,\u201d President Joe Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2022\/08\/05\/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-july-jobs-report-and-signing-of-anti-fraud-bills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> Aug. 5 after signing a bill designed to help the government prosecute fraud cases related to pandemic aid.<\/p>\n<p>The Labor Department and Small Business Administration did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID-19-related government benefit programs relied on the honor system to combat abuse, resulting in massive fraud and costing the government as much as $100 billion, sources told The New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1609253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609253","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\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1609253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1609253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1609253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1609253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}