{"id":1958527,"date":"2023-06-27T17:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T21:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fraudsters-stole-more-than-200-billion-from-two-covid-relief-programs-watchdog-estimates\/"},"modified":"2023-06-27T17:50:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T21:50:26","slug":"fraudsters-stole-more-than-200-billion-from-two-covid-relief-programs-watchdog-estimates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fraudsters-stole-more-than-200-billion-from-two-covid-relief-programs-watchdog-estimates\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog estimates $200B+ stolen by fraudsters from COVID relief programs."},"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\">20<\/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%2Ffraudsters-stole-more-than-200-billion-from-two-covid-relief-programs-watchdog-estimates%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=1958527&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>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>Small Business Administration inspector general still has tens of thousands of pandemic relief fraud tips to pursue<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure>\n  <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Fraudsters and swindlers stole more than $200 billion from just two government programs aimed at providing relief during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a federal watchdog estimate.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span>A Small Business Administration inspector general <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pandemic-covid19-fraud-small-business-inspector-general-7e651b3e405863f0be9f2e34ca47b93e\"><span>released the numbers<\/span><\/a><span> Tuesday, finding that &#8220;fraudulent actors&#8221; stole more than $136 billion from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and $64 billion from the Paycheck Protection Program, two government initiatives that worked to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-covid-19-relief-bill-includes-1-billion-to-advance-racial-justice-in-farming\/\" title=\"Biden COVID-19 Relief Bill Includes  Billion To Advance \u2018Racial Justice\u2019 In Farming\">small businesses afloat<\/a> during the pandemic. Those figures mark a whopping 17 percent of all funds issued under the two programs, with a third of all Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program funds being stolen, according to the report.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While fraud in federal spending programs is nothing new, the numbers mark a substantial increase in past projections of stolen funds under the two initiatives. The Small Business Administration inspector general previously estimated that roughly $106 billion was stolen from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and Paycheck Protection Program, according to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pandemic-covid19-fraud-small-business-inspector-general-7e651b3e405863f0be9f2e34ca47b93e\"><span>Associated Press<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The race to get COVID funds out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fraudsters-stole-more-than-200-billion-from-two-covid-relief-programs-watchdog-estimates\/\" title=\"Watchdog estimates 0B+ stolen by fraudsters from COVID relief programs.\">door left federal pandemic relief programs ripe<\/a> for fraud\u2014the government lost roughly 10 percent of all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-jersey-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-fraudulently-receiving-millions-in-covid-small-business-relief-funds\/\" title=\"New Jersey Man Sentenced To Prison For Fraudulently Receiving Millions In Covid Small Business Relief Funds\">pandemic relief funds<\/a> to fraud and improper payments, according to an Associated Press estimate, and t<\/span><span>hose figures will likely continue to grow. Inspector General Mike Ware earlier this month told the outlet that he has tens of thousands of &#8220;actionable leads into pandemic relief fraud,&#8221; leads that would take a century to sort through.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;We will continue to assess fraud until we&#8217;re finished with the investigations on these things,&#8221; Ware said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Scammers, in some cases, used fake Social Security numbers from dead people and federal prisoners to exploit COVID unemployment relief. <span>The Biden administration in 2021 and 2022 paid dead people almost a billion dollars in improper payments, a June <\/span><i><span>Free Beacon<\/span><\/i><span> report <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/tax-dollars-at-work-biden-admin-has-paid-dead-people-nearly-a-billion-dollars\/\"><span>revealed<\/span><\/a><span>. In one case, a Missouri man &#8220;collected $200,000 in checks for his dead mother for 26 years before the government found out, while a Michigan man collected $500,000 under the name of a dead relative,&#8221; fiscal watchdog group OpenTheBooks found.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span>In other cases, the Small Business Administration disbursed funds to seedy businesses. It sent $117,000 to six massage parlors that were later busted for sex crimes, the <i>Washington Free Beacon<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/coronavirus\/not-a-happy-ending-massage-parlors-raided-in-prostitution-stings-received-over-100k-in-covid-relief\/\">reported<\/a> last year. Now, former executive director of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Bob Westbrooks is hammering the federal government for its failure to uphold the &#8220;integrity&#8221; of its pandemic programs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The government can walk and chew gum at the same time,&#8221; Westbrooks told the Associated Press. &#8220;They should have put basic fraud controls in place to verify people&#8217;s identity and to make sure targeted relief was getting into the right hands.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>that there are still numerous pandemic relief fraud tips for the inspector general to investigate. The federal watchdog estimated that fraudsters and swindlers have stolen over $200 billion from two government programs designed to offer relief during the COVID-19 crisis. These findings were disclosed by the Small Business Administration inspector general on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2088,"featured_media":1958528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1958527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958527","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\/2088"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1958527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1958528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1958527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1958527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1958527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}