Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-manchin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Manchin</a> (D-WV) reportedly has severe reservations over the nomination of Julie Su, who oversaw billions in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/coronavirus-relief" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pandemic relief</a> fraud during her time as a senior official in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>, to replace Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.
Su led the California Labor Department, which oversees the state’s Employment Development Department, as one-tenth of the $114 billion in pandemic relief claims handled by the agency involved fraudulent activity. The total amount of fraud could have surpassed $31 billion, according to a January 2021 <a href="http://sfchronicle.com/business/article/California-officials-At-least-10-of-EDD-15897268.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Manchin recently informed the White House that he is hesitant to confirm Su, according to a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/04/13/biden-julie-su-labor-manchin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from Axios which cited multiple unnamed sources, even as the lack of support from Manchin in the narrowly Democratic Senate could sink the nomination. Hesitant Democrats also provoked the withdrawal of Gigi Sohn to serve on the Federal Communications Commission and Phil Washington to work as head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Opposition from Manchin similarly nixed the prospects of Neera Tanden to work as director of the Office of Management and Budget; she now serves as White House Staff Secretary.
Manchin faces re-election next year in his heavily Republican home state. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) could also oppose Su to create distance from President Joe Biden as they likewise launch potentially difficult re-election campaigns.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-defends-labor-secretary-nominee-who-oversaw-billions-in-covid-relief-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defended</a> Su last month as reporters cited the massive unemployment insurance fraud over which she presided. Jean-Pierre noted that Su was forced to handle one in five unemployment relief claims in the nation.
“It was a historic crush of unemployment claims at the onset of the pandemic. That’s what we were seeing,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “The design of the initial pandemic unemployment systems and years of national investments in UI modernization led to challenges, including fraud attacks, as you were just stating, across the nation in red and blue states alike. That was happening across the country during the very early stages of the pandemic.”
Su answered journalists at the time by asserting that “there is no sugarcoating the reality” of the rampant fraud which occurred in California, according to a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-25/california-unemployment-fraud-11-billion-investigations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Los Angeles Times. “California has not had sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation,” she added.
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She also blamed the Trump administration, saying officials neglected to offer guidance on distributing the funds. “It should be no surprise that EDD was overwhelmed, just like the rest of the nation’s unemployment agencies,” Su added. “And we now know that as millions of Californians applied for help, international and national criminal rings were at work behind the scenes working relentlessly to steal unemployment benefits using sophisticated methods of identity theft.”
House Republicans, who secured a narrow majority in the midterm elections, are examining the widespread fraud which accompanied the pandemic relief initiatives meant to stimulate the economy during the lockdown-induced recession. Criminals may have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fraudulent-lockdown-era-unemployment-payments-may-amount-to-60-billion-government-watchdog-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stolen</a> as much as $60 billion from the various federal unemployment programs enacted by the stimulus bills, according to a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105523.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Government Accountability Office. Other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shock-half-of-covid-19-unemployment-funds-may-have-gone-to-scammers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> say that $400 billion, half of the total unemployment funds approved by the federal government, was lost to fraud.

Joe Manchin

Manchin Could Sink Biden Nominee Who Oversaw Billions In Pandemic Fraud

Manchin Could Sink Biden Labor Nominee Who Oversaw Billions In Pandemic Fraud

California

Congress

Coronavirus Relief

Politics

The <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White House</a> defended the record of Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su, who President Joe Biden nominated to replace Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, despite the fact that she oversaw billions in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/coronavirus-relief" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pandemic relief</a> fraud during her time as a senior official in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>.
Su led the California Labor Department, which oversees the Employment Development Department, as one-tenth of the $114 billion in pandemic relief claims handled by the agency involved fraudulent activity. An additional 17% of the benefits were made to accounts that were frozen for an investigation, meaning that the total amount of fraud could have surpassed $31 billion, according to a January 2021 <a href="http://sfchronicle.com/business/article/California-officials-At-least-10-of-EDD-15897268.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the San Francisco Chronicle.
One reporter raised the concerns with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a Wednesday briefing; the official justified the phenomenon by noting that Su was forced to handle one in five unemployment relief claims nationwide.
“It was a historic crush of unemployment claims at the onset of the pandemic. That’s what we were seeing,” she told the reporter. “The design of the initial pandemic unemployment systems and years of national investments in UI modernization led to challenges, including fraud attacks, as you were just stating, across the nation in red and blue states alike. That was happening across the country during the very early stages of the pandemic.”
Jean-Pierre added that Su “took important steps to process a number of claims” and remarked that the Biden administration intends to combat pandemic relief fraud. “This is an issue that’s important to her, strengthening those safety nets, and also an issue that’s important to the President that he’s actually taken action on,” she continued.
Fraudsters may have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fraudulent-lockdown-era-unemployment-payments-may-amount-to-60-billion-government-watchdog-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stolen</a> as much as $60 billion from the various federal unemployment programs enacted by lockdown-era stimulus bills, according to a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105523.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Government Accountability Office. Other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shock-half-of-covid-19-unemployment-funds-may-have-gone-to-scammers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> say that $400 billion, or half of the total unemployment funds approved by the federal government, was lost to fraud.
Su told journalists two years ago that “there is no sugarcoating the reality” of the rampant fraud which occurred in the Golden State, according to a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-25/california-unemployment-fraud-11-billion-investigations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Los Angeles Times. “California has not had sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation,” she added.
Su nevertheless blamed officials in the Trump administration for purportedly neglecting to offer sufficient guidance on distributing the resources. “It should be no surprise that EDD was overwhelmed, just like the rest of the nation’s unemployment agencies,” she continued. “And we now know that as millions of Californians applied for help, international and national criminal rings were at work behind the scenes working relentlessly to steal unemployment benefits using sophisticated methods of identity theft.”
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Walsh, who previously served as mayor of Boston, plans to depart the Labor Department to lead the National Hockey League Players’ Association. His tenure was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/union-allies-turn-on-pro-labor-biden-for-trying-to-prevent-looming-rail-strike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">characterized</a> by rail unions threatening to enact a nationwide strike ahead of the midterms, which led to the Biden administration negotiating an agreement granting workers pay raises and more health benefits.

Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su Visits NYC Restaurants With Rep. Carolyn Maloney And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries To Learn About Worker Experiences Amid Major Staffing Crisis For The Industry

White House Defends Labor Secretary Nominee Who Oversaw Billions In COVID Relief Fraud

White House Defends Labor Secretary Nominee Julie Su, Who Oversaw Billions In COVID Relief Fraud

Biden Administration

Executive

Fraud

Karine Jean-Pierre

President <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> announced on Tuesday that he will nominate Julie Su, who oversaw billions in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/coronavirus-relief" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pandemic relief</a> fraud during her time as a senior official in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>, to replace Labor Secretary <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/marty-walsh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marty Walsh</a>.
Su, who has served as deputy secretary of labor under Walsh since July 2021, previously worked as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. “It is my honor to nominate Julie Su to be our country’s next Secretary of Labor,” Biden said in a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/28/president-biden-nominates-julie-su-for-secretary-of-the-department-of-labor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “Over several decades, Julie has led the largest state labor department in the nation, cracked down on wage theft, fought to protect trafficked workers, increased the minimum wage, created good-paying, high-quality jobs, and established and enforced workplace safety standards.”
Walsh departs the Labor Department to lead the National Hockey League Players&#8217; Association, the labor union which represents athletes in the NHL. His tenure was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/union-allies-turn-on-pro-labor-biden-for-trying-to-prevent-looming-rail-strike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">marked</a> by rail unions threatening to enact a nationwide strike ahead of the midterm elections, which led to the Biden administration negotiating an agreement granting workers 24% pay raises and more robust health benefits.
Su would be the first Asian American member of the Biden administration’s Cabinet if she is confirmed by the Senate. She previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-taps-ca-labor-official-for-role-amidst-states-multi-billion-dollar-unemployment-fraud-scandal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> criticism for indirectly overseeing the California Employment Development Department as one-tenth of the $114 billion in pandemic relief claims handled by the agency involved fraudulent activity. An additional 17% of the benefit payments were made to accounts that were frozen for an investigation; the total amount of fraud could have therefore surpassed $31 billion, according to a January 2021 <a href="http://sfchronicle.com/business/article/California-officials-At-least-10-of-EDD-15897268.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the San Francisco Chronicle.
“There is no sugarcoating the reality,” Su told reporters in the wake of the revelations, according to a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-25/california-unemployment-fraud-11-billion-investigations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Los Angeles Times. “California has not had sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation.”
Su nevertheless blamed the Trump administration for purportedly neglecting to offer adequate guidance on distributing the resources and countering fraudulent claims. “It should be no surprise that EDD was overwhelmed, just like the rest of the nation’s unemployment agencies,” she continued. “And we now know that as millions of Californians applied for help, international and national criminal rings were at work behind the scenes working relentlessly to steal unemployment benefits using sophisticated methods of identity theft.”
Fraudsters may indeed have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fraudulent-lockdown-era-unemployment-payments-may-amount-to-60-billion-government-watchdog-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stolen</a> as much as $60 billion from the various federal unemployment programs enacted by lockdown-era stimulus bills, according to a <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105523.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Government Accountability Office. Other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shock-half-of-covid-19-unemployment-funds-may-have-gone-to-scammers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> predict that $400 billion, or half of the unemployment funds approved by the federal government, were ultimately lost to fraud.
The appointment of Su would occur as some lawmakers attempt to garner answers on the use of stimulus funds. House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee issued multiple <a href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/republican-leaders-request-hearing-on-unemployment-insurance-fraud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requests</a> for hearings about the fraud over the past two years; Democrats have consistently <a href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/democrats-vote-to-blatantly-ignore-greatest-theft-of-american-tax-dollars-in-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked</a> the requests to examine the extent of fraudulent activity, the lawmakers say.
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“American families, whose wages have eroded under President Biden’s inflation crisis, have watched as hundreds of billions of their hard-earned tax dollars were lost to criminal activity and fraud because Democrats refused to acknowledge the problem and repeatedly rejected Republican efforts to put basic safeguards in place to protect against this activity,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire last month. “Congressional Democrats walked away from their oversight responsibilities of getting to the bottom of how this happened, what they could do to prevent it, and even how much has fully been lost, leaving criminals to profit off the backs of taxpayers.”

Biden Taps California Official Who Oversaw Billions In COVID Unemployment Fraud To Serve As Labor Secretary

Biden Taps California Official Who Oversaw Up To $31 Billion In COVID Unemployment Fraud To Serve As Labor Secretary

Marty Walsh

The federal government will not even attempt to recover some coronavirus-related loans that did not meet the conditions for forgiveness, in what could amount to the greenlighting of theft from an $800 billion program.
The Small Business Administration (SBA), which administered the pandemic aid <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-bidens-laptop-lady-got-20k-federal-stimulus-for-female-owned-sole-proprietorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paycheck Protection Program</a> (PPP), said it will not seek to collect on loans that should have been paid back, but were not, as long as the amount is $100,000 or less. The vast majority of the 12 million loans given out in 2020 and 2021 were under $100,000.
The agency&#8217;s inspector general, which is tasked with policing waste, fraud, and abuse, sounded the alarm at SBA&#8217;s decision, saying its logic does not add up and it should suspend the decision.
&#8220;SBA ending collections on PPP loans valued at $100,000 or less is not in compliance with applicable criteria,&#8221; the IG wrote. &#8220;SBA is potentially increasing the taxpayer burden by missing the opportunity to collect on these delinquent PPP loans,&#8221; it <a href="https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/SBA%20OIG%20Report%2022-25.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
It said that by openly allowing Americans to keep huge sums of money they are not entitled to, the federal government is encouraging future fraud against the government.
&#8220;Ending collections could set a precedence for future stimulus programs and incentivize ineligible borrowers to obtain loans valued at $100,000 or less. However, continuing to pursue collections will help ensure accountability from delinquent borrowers and promote program integrity,&#8221; it said.
Most of the loans were &#8220;forgivable,&#8221; meaning they essentially converted into a grant. But if recipients did not meet certain conditions, the money was due back. However, the agency is essentially just letting them keep it. One million borrowers with loans totaling $17 billion have not sought forgiveness for loans under $100,000.
&#8220;SBA made a decision to formally end collections on purchased PPP loans with an outstanding balance of $100,000 or less. SBA’s rationale for the decision was to provide equitable treatment between smaller sole proprietor borrowers not protected by an incorporation shield and larger incorporated borrowers,&#8221; the IG wrote in an &#8220;alert&#8221; questioning the decision. &#8220;Therefore, borrowers that have a purchased PPP loan with an outstanding balance of $100,000 or less would not be referred to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for collections or other collection measures.&#8221;
The law allows agencies to not try to collect money that is owed to them only if the cost of recovering the money would exceed the money itself. SBA claimed that was the case, but the IG said that was doubtful, and that the SBA didn&#8217;t even run the numbers.
&#8220;SBA purchased these PPP loans because the lender identified that the borrowers were 60 days or more past due on scheduled loan payments. However, SBA did not pursue collections on these loans. Instead, SBA charged off these loans and made no referral to Treasury, without conducting a sufficient cost benefit analysis to support ending collections,&#8221; it said.
Moreover, by referring the loans to the Treasury in accordance with normal procedures, the government has ways of easily recovering money at little cost, including withholding it from future tax refunds, it said. It also puts their name on a list to prevent them from taking advantage of other government programs.
And SBA did not give up on trying to claw back money that Americans weren&#8217;t entitled to because it proved fruitless. Rather, it never even tried. &#8220;We also did not find any evidence that SBA made any attempts to collect on the purchased PPP loans. At the onset of SBA purchasing the PPP loans in July 2021, it decided not to pursue debt collection for the purchased PPP loans,&#8221; the IG wrote.
PPP loans were doled out by banks, but the government was required to purchase the loans if there were any problems. Government investigations found that many financial institutions had a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/coronavirus-loan-fraud-prevention-fell-to-unvetted-firms-that-profited-hugely-while-ignoring-fraud-congress-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cavalier attitude</a> as a result, taking a hands-off approach to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-pandemic-unemployment-claims-listed-the-names-of-still-employed-government-workers-senator-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fraud</a> because the more loans they processed, the more money they made&#8211;and when loans were approved despite being ineligible, it was taxpayers, and not the bank, who would eat the cost.
Banks are supposed to make an initial effort at collecting money before selling the loan to the government, but SBA did not even require banks to show evidence that they made an attempt, the IG said.
The Debt Collection Improvement Act also allows agencies to suspend collections if the person has no ability to pay. However, SBA never investigated this, and some of the money may have gone to significantly well-off people.
SBA &#8220;stated in its analysis that the decision to end collections was to ensure equitable treatment between smaller sole proprietor borrowers and larger incorporated borrowers. SBA stated that if they pursued collections, the individuals associated with the generally larger incorporated borrowers would suffer nothing, whereas the individual sole proprietors, not protected by the incorporation shield, would incur collection efforts that the larger, incorporated borrowers would avoid. However, SBA’s analysis did not support equitable treatment as it did not provide any specific data on the breakdown of individual and corporate borrowers nor any quantitative assessment of effect to each type of borrower,&#8221; the IG wrote.
In a response to the IG, the SBA said it did not intend to reverse its decision, and defended itself by saying that it wasn&#8217;t worth recovering money because it has a very poor record of doing so&#8211;in one similar program, recording only 0.28% of the amount it was owed. And it asserted that Office of Management and Budget recommendations did not legally apply to it.
Earlier this month, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/agencies-congress-didnt-even-try-to-stop-fraud-in-4t-coronavirus-bailout-audit-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Government Accountability Office</a> said in a searing, comprehensive report that large portions of the $4 trillion coronavirus stimulus program were marred by federal agencies&#8217; seeming indifference to fraud, including a minimum of $60 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nigerian-prince-alert-feds-coronavirus-loan-program-paid-1-billion-to-people-who-applied-from-other-countries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nigerian Prince Alert: Feds’ Coronavirus Loan Program Paid $1 Billion To People Who Applied From Other Countries</a>

Confirmation Hearing Held For SBA Administrator Nominee Isabella Casillas Guzman

SBA Won’t Even Try To Collect On PPP Loans That Are Supposed To Be Paid Back, Citing ‘Equity’

SBA Won't Even Try To Collect On PPP Loans That Are Supposed To Be Paid Back, Citing 'Equity'

Coronavirus

Economy

Small Business Administration

Not only did the glut of coronavirus-tied bailouts likely result in billions of dollars of fraud, but it happened because government agencies in many cases did not take even basic steps to prevent it, and in other cases have declined to try to claw back improper payments, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.
In a searing, comprehensive <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106556" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress excoriated the administration of almost every pandemic-era spending program—and Congress itself—for doling out $4.6 trillion with the prospect of fraud seemingly an afterthought.
Three years after the pandemic began, rampant fraud turned out to be very much a reality.
Unemployment fraud. Coronavirus-era programs flooded cash into a program that already has one of the government&#8217;s highest rates of improper payments: unemployment checks. Non-coronavirus <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-pandemic-unemployment-claims-listed-the-names-of-still-employed-government-workers-senator-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unemployment checks</a> already had an improper payment rate of nearly 19% in fiscal year 2021 and more than 22% in 2022. Coronavirus programs flooded this with even easier access to even more cash, with $873 billion in checks to people who said they were laid off or had hours reduced because of coronavirus. In the best-case scenario&#8211;that coronavirus unemployment checks were no more fraudulent than the lower 2021 non-coronavirus value&#8211;&#8220;at least $163 billion in pandemic UI benefits could have been paid improperly,&#8221; the GAO said.
And that’s likely a vastly optimistic scenario, because the coronavirus unemployment program “allowed applicants to self-certify their eligibility and did not require them to provide any documentation of self-employment or prior income.” The Department of Labor, which administers the program, also encouraged states to waive a standard 21-day waiting period—the period in which anti-fraud scrutiny often occurs.
Even as it dramatically loosened controls on a program that already had an atrocious rate of improper payments, the Department of Labor did not have a dedicated fraud unit in place, and more than two years after the GAO first warned of the problem in October 2021, DOL said it was merely “in the process” of “proceeding with implementing” the recommendations—long after the pandemic has ended, according to the GAO.
PPP loans. The most prominent coronavirus bailouts—forgivable PPP and EIDL loans for businesses—were administered by the Small Business Administration, which did not even set up an anti-fraud entity until after the program was done giving out money, GAO said.
“SBA did not designate a dedicated antifraud entity until February 2022. This new entity—the Fraud Risk Management Board—is to oversee and coordinate SBA’s fraud risk prevention, detection, and response activities. Further, in March 2021, we found that SBA had not conducted fraud risk assessments for PPP and the COVID-19 EIDL program and recommended that it do so. When SBA developed its fraud risk assessments for the programs in October 2021, PPP had already stopped accepting new applications and the COVID-19 EIDL program would stop at the end of that year,” it wrote.
EIDL. PPP and EIDL together paid out nearly $1 trillion. Yet Congress explicitly blocked SBA from using tax returns to verify a business’s eligibility for EIDL loans, even though it is a highly relevant piece of information. “As a result, SBA relied on self-certification,” GAO said.
GAO reviewed a sample of loans processed without consulting tax returns and found that “about half of them” should not have been approved.
Congress removed the restriction nine months later, but SBA still didn’t bother verifying applications using tax returns in a timely manner. “Specifically, the SBA OIG found that for about 4 months after Congress removed the tax return prohibition, SBA made 133,832 COVID19 EIDL disbursements, totaling about $8.5 billion without proving applicant eligibility using official tax information,” it said.
Congress. While one might assume that agencies should not have to be told to try to mitigate fraud, Congress explicitly removed legal requirements relating to policing fraud from massive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/100b-bonanza-pfizer-reports-record-sales-profits-behind-covid-vaccine-oral-treatment">coronavirus</a> appropriations bills. “Although federal laws have required agencies to submit specific internal control plans for relief funds in previous emergencies, there was no such requirement for the COVID-19 pandemic,” GAO wrote.
The Fraud Reduction and Data Analytics Act of 2015 and the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 “required agencies to report on their antifraud controls and fraud risk management efforts in their annual financial reports,” but that requirement ended in 2020 and has not been renewed by Congress.
Nearly half of states didn’t even try to get wrongly-paid benefits back. In May 2021, the Department of Labor’s inspector general found that when 19 states overpaid someone’s unemployment benefits, they did not even attempt to get the money back. “From April 2020 through September 2022, states and territories reported about $48.6 billion in overpayments across the UI programs,” GAO said.
No attempt to screen fraud in program that prioritized minority restaurant owners. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund attracted scrutiny for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-restaurant-relief-program-excludes-white-male-owners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">excluding white males</a>, a provision that a judge ruled was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/court-strikes-down-racial-gender-preferences-in-bidens-1-9-trillion-covid-relief-bill-that-discriminated-against-restaurant-owners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unconstitutional</a>. The program also seemed to go out of its way to cater to minority fraudsters. While SBA, which ran the program, collected data that could be used to screen for fraud, the agency told GAO flatly that “they were not analyzing these data to detect potentially fraudulent recipients.”
Provider Relief Fund. This program, oddly enough, paid doctors and nurses who said they had lost business because of the nationwide medical emergency. In October 2021, GAO found that the Department of Health and Human Services did not even have procedures in place to recover overpayments. “While it took initial actions to address this recommendation, [HHS] suspended its post-payment recovery efforts in March 2022” to explore whether it even had the authority to claw back wrongfully-paid money. “According to HRSA, the agency is still in the process of determining its authority to recover overpayments” in some scenarios.
Emergency Rental Assistance. Another wildly controversial program involved rent payments. The program was administered by the U.S. Treasury. GAO “identified potentially duplicative emergency rental assistance payments but found that Treasury had not conducted a detailed risk assessment of the program’s susceptibility to improper payment, for example, by reviewing grantee payment data.” Treasury seemed uninterested: “Officials did not commit to additional steps to assess or address improper payment risks because of resource limitations.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-496616" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/gao-improper-payments.png" alt="" width="940" height="485" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/gao-improper-payments.png 940w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/gao-improper-payments-300x155.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/gao-improper-payments-768x396.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></div>
Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. The US Department of Agriculture paid $31 billion to farmers “to offset losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. GAO “reviewed claims of 90 producers with risk factors for improper payments and found that over half of these producers did not provide full support for their payments, potentially making it harder to identify payment errors and fraud.” It provided recommendations to USDA, but “the agency has not yet taken action to implement these recommendations.”
Affordable Connectivity Program. “In January 2023, we found that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had not developed an antifraud strategy to address identified fraud risks associated with the Affordable Connectivity Program,” GAO wrote.
The Office of Management and Budget said that federal agencies wrongfully paid out some quarter-trillion dollars in fiscal 2022. But GAO said even that shocking sum significantly understates it: OMB&#8217;s figure doesn&#8217;t include some of the most integrity-challenged programs, including pandemic uninsurance, food stamps, and welfare.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-pandemic-unemployment-claims-listed-the-names-of-still-employed-government-workers-senator-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thousands Of Pandemic Unemployment Claims Listed The Names Of Still-Employed Government Workers, Senator Says</a>

Money

Agencies, Congress Didn’t Even Try To Stop Fraud In $4T Coronavirus Bailout, Audit Finds

Federal Agencies Didn’t Even Try To Stop Coronavirus Fraud, Blistering GAO Audit Says

Inspector general

Thousands of federal employees may have wrongfully obtained coronavirus bailouts by claiming to be unemployed, with some even doing so from their desks at government offices, federal investigators found.
Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senator-blasts-biden-for-compiling-naughty-list-of-peddlers-of-misinformation-like-the-lab-leak-theory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joni Ernst</a> (R-IA) is demanding answers, saying that the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PARC) should &#8220;recover the money that was ripped off, and grant each of those who took advantage of taxpayers by collecting jobless benefits their wish to be unemployed.&#8221;
&#8220;It is appalling for anyone fortunate enough to have the reliability of a government paycheck to take advantage of financial assistance intended to provide a lifeline to Americans who lost their jobs or were unable to work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,&#8221; Ernst added.
A variety of government programs paid significant sums to people who said their jobs had been impacted by coronavirus in 2020. The Department of Homeland Security&#8217;s Inspector General <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2022-09/OIG-22-73-Sep22.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that nearly 2,000 applications for &#8220;Lost Wages Assistance&#8221; and unemployment insurance payouts had the names of DHS employees who were ineligible since they were, of course, employed by the government agency.
In fact, of 2,393 applications filed with DHS employees&#8217; names, only 584 could be confirmed as actually eligible for the program — and even some of those bore signs of fraud, such as incorrect amounts.
Benefits could also be paid to people whose hours were cut back because of the pandemic, but in 366 cases, the name associated with the unemployment claim actually worked overtime during the relevant period, the audit found.
In some cases, the fraud may have been the result of criminals stealing the employees’ identities and successfully filing unemployment claims with them. In others, there were indications that the employees were to blame, including that some government assistance forms were actually filled out from computers registering to the DHS computer network.
Either way, fraud was able to occur because DHS had few security measures in place for verifying assistance claims despite being tasked with keeping the nation safe.
&#8220;This occurred because FEMA hastily implemented the LWA program in 11 days, during an unprecedented pandemic, without developing program controls to prevent fraud,&#8221; auditors wrote.
Ernst wrote Friday to Michael Horowitz, chair of the PARC, that &#8220;Employees of other federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Amtrak, and the U.S. Postal Service have also been caught fraudulently collecting unemployment payments, despite being on the federal payroll.”
On January 4, the state of <a href="https://oig.georgia.gov/press-releases/2023-01-04/oig-publishes-open-letter-regarding-ui-fraud-state-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Georgia&#8217;s inspector general</a> said that &#8220;we have tentatively identified over 280 full-time state employees who erroneously received unemployment insurance (UI) payments in 2020 or 2021. These payments averaged $23,700 per employee and totaled over $6.7 million. And this is a conservative estimate.&#8221;
Those included &#8220;Two Department of Human Services DCSS/DFCS supervisors who received approximately $49,730 and $36,575&#8221; and a state employee whose job was to evaluate unemployment claims, but who himself &#8220;received approximately $31,220 and who continued to update a fraudulent UI account while employed with&#8221; the Georgia Department of Labor.
In October, the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-current-or-former-irs-employees-charged-defrauding-federal-covid-19-relief-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Justice</a> said it had charged five former or current IRS employees with pandemic fraud seeking more than $1 million, which they allegedly used on &#8220;cars, luxury goods, and personal travel, including trips to Las Vegas.&#8221; But the inspector general for the Small Business Administration (SBA), which administered the largest coronavirus programs, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-bidens-laptop-lady-got-20k-federal-stimulus-for-female-owned-sole-proprietorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acknowledged</a> that so much money was paid out in such a short amount of time, and with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/coronavirus-loan-fraud-prevention-fell-to-unvetted-firms-that-profited-hugely-while-ignoring-fraud-congress-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">so few safeguards</a>, that only a tiny fraction of suspicious cases have even been investigated.
SBA doled out forgivable &#8220;loans&#8221; to business owners whose livelihood was ostensibly interrupted by COVID, known as PPP or EIDL payments. In its most recent <a href="https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/sites/default/files/2022-12/PRAC_Semiannual_Report_Sept_2022_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">semiannual report</a> to Congress, PARC said that by matching the information of federal employees with these payments, six federal agencies found &#8220;tens of thousands of employees with SBA loans for which they were not eligible.&#8221;
Cross-referencing that list of names — people with stable jobs whose identities are readily known to the government because they work for it — could yield many more problematic unemployment claims at other agencies, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-watchdog-slams-faucis-agency-and-ecohealth-over-deal-with-wuhan-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ernst</a> said. &#8220;I would encourage you to conduct a similar review to determine how many unscrupulous bureaucrats wrongfully took advantage of the federal pandemic unemployment and lost wages assistance programs,&#8221; she wrote.

Senators Meet For Their Weekly Policy Luncheons

Thousands Of Pandemic Unemployment Claims Listed The Names Of Still-Employed Government Workers, Senator Says

Department of Homeland Security

Joni Ernst

Firms the federal government hired to distribute <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/only-2-of-childrens-deaths-were-from-covid-and-school-closures-didnt-reduce-the-number" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus</a> Paycheck Protection Program loans promised to use high-tech methods to prevent fraud, but failed in part because abuse hurt taxpayers and not their own bottom line, according to a congressional investigation.
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis found that two financial tech, or &#8220;fintech,&#8221; firms allegedly earned billions in profits by taking a percentage of each loan that they processed — often while barely looking at it. Some of the firms involved had little relevant experience, and one was run by a man who pleaded guilty in 2014 to insider trading.
&#8220;The investigation found that two unvetted and unregulated fintechs that, together, facilitated nearly one in every three PPP loans funded in 2021 — Womply and Blueacorn — failed to implement systems capable of consistently detecting and preventing fraudulent and otherwise ineligible PPP applications,&#8221; a <a href="https://coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrats.coronavirus.house.gov/files/2022.12.01%20How%20Fintechs%20Facilitated%20Fraud%20in%20the%20Paycheck%20Protection%20Program.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">committee report</a> released Thursday said.
Blueacorn gave nearly $300 million in profits to its owners but spent only $8.6 million on fraud prevention, the report said. It spent far more on marketing, and Blueacorn advertised &#8220;free money&#8221; in &#8220;30 seconds&#8221; to applicants, according to the report from the committee, which is led by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina).
Blueacorn had a small company called Elev8 Advisors, which was &#8220;run by a member of Blueacorn’s senior leadership,&#8221; review loan applications, and it was staffed with dozens of friends and family of the owner. The owner, Kristen Spencer, wrote in a text message obtained by the committee: “We are doing this for the people we hired to make money. Our friends and family. That is where the money is going. And it will be life changing money for anyone who does it.”
Employees were told that reviewing each loan should take them &#8220;less than 30 seconds,&#8221; employees told the committee.
Elev8&#8217;s owners, Kristen and Adam Spencer, also received $200,000 in PPP loans — even though the pandemic had been a boon for their business, not a hardship — around the same time they purchased an $8 million mansion in cash, the report said. One of the loans claimed Kristen was an &#8220;interior architect&#8221; for her husband&#8217;s company, even though that company was located in a WeWork, according to the investigation.
Blueacorn&#8217;s owners focused on big loans, which brought the largest commissions, and ignored those from small business owners, writing &#8220;who f***ing cares&#8221; and &#8220;delete them,&#8221; the report said. Blueacorn is owned by Nathan Reis and Stephanie Hockridge. The company also received $300,000 in PPP loans for itself, some of which were vetted by itself. And on the application, Reis falsely claimed to be black and a veteran, the report said.
Another fintech company, Womply, had revenue of $2 billion in 2021 and a gross profit margin of nearly 90%. Lending partners said its anti-fraud controls were &#8220;put together with duct tape and gum,&#8221; the report said. Additionally, the SBA said that even the application for $5 million in PPP loans that Womply filed for itself was ineligible.
Womply CEO Toby Scammell was convicted of insider trading in 2014 and led the company&#8217;s fraud prevention efforts. He also instructed the company not to cooperate with federal investigators, the report said.
Criminals quickly realized that they should apply through fintech firms if they wanted fake loans approved, according to the report. One gang member said that &#8220;everybody in the hood&#8221; was using Womply, according to the report. Investigators believe the PPP loans were used to buy guns and drugs.
Another fintech called Kabbage approved more than 300,000 loans. Its employees were concerned that fraud rates were &#8220;wildly underestimated,&#8221; but a manager told them &#8220;the risk here is not ours – it is SBA’s risk,” the report said.
The report concluded that &#8220;Based on these findings, Congress and the SBA should consider carefully whether unregulated businesses such as fintechs, many of which are not subject to the same regulations as financial institutions, should be permitted to play a leading role in future federal lending programs.&#8221;
The PPP program is overseen by the Small Business Administration. The SBA’s Inspector General has said the levels of fraud present in the PPP program were “unprecedented,” and that &#8220;This problem occurred because the agency did not establish a sufficient fraud risk framework at the start of and throughout PPP implementation.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-uses-little-known-covid-waiver-to-write-off-9b-in-student-loans-for-150000-government-nonprofit-workers">Biden Uses Little-Known COVID Waiver To Write Off $9B In Student Loans For 150,000 Government, Nonprofit Workers</a>

TURKEY-ECONOMY-CURRENCY-DOLLARS-FEATURE

Coronavirus Loan Fraud Prevention Fell To ‘Unvetted’ Firms That Profited Hugely While Ignoring Fraud, Congress Finds

Coronavirus Loan Fraud Prevention Fell To 'Unregulated' Firms That Profited Hugely While Ignoring Fraud, Congress Finds

James Clyburn

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

U.S.

The federal government doled out $1.3 billion in forgivable coronavirus loans to people whose applications were submitted from foreign IP addresses, according to a new Small Business Administration Inspector General <a href="https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/SBA/SBA-OIG-Report-22-17.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>.
The Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs), which were in effect grants, were supposed to be for U.S. businesses which were unable to pay their employees because of coronavirus. But the hemorrhaging of huge amounts of government spending all at once was accompanied by significant fraud, with the government having little opportunity to vet applicants.
&#8220;The numerous applications submitted from foreign IP addresses are an indication of potential fraud that may involve international criminal organizations,&#8221; the report said.
The government was supposed to have blocked foreign computers from accessing the online form to apply for federal money, but that didn&#8217;t happen, the report found.
&#8220;Neither SBA nor its contractor knew how so many applications were able to subvert [the] Firewall,&#8221; it said. As a result, 41,638 grants were paid out.
The payments included nearly 500 grants from the notorious online-scammer hub of Nigeria and a similar amount, totaling $50 million, from Pakistan. Two-thousand grants totaling $160 million came from Mexico, and $143 million worth came from India.
The Biden administration also removed anti-fraud measures to make it easier for people to get money.
&#8220;Prior to April 20, 2021, the written procedures required the loan officer to automatically deny the loan [when computer systems flagged Suspicious Online Behavior]. SBA revised the written procedures on April 20, 2021, reversing the automatic denial,&#8221; the report said.
Along those flagged as high-risk, loan officers only reviewed about half of them, the IG review found.
The SBA told its inspector general that “The $1.3 billion identified by the OIG that originated from applications submitted from a foreign IP address represents less than .04 percent of the more than $342 billion approved by SBA for COVID EIDL advances and loans.”
But the IG countered that &#8220;$1.3 billion in taxpayer funds to individuals or businesses that should not have received it is significant&#8230; it is concerning that $1.3 billion intended to assist small businesses during the pandemic potentially funded illegal activities worldwide.&#8221;
Part of the contractor&#8217;s software also failed to fit IPv6 records, which are longer numbers than older IP addresses and are common in some countries, which limited the ability to track applicants, the report said.
The glut of federal money during the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coronavirus</a> pandemic, which was in part designed to mitigate the effects of government-mandated lockdowns, contributed to inflation. But not all of the money went to bona fide businesses.
The Daily Wire previously reported that one prostitute <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-bidens-laptop-lady-got-20k-federal-stimulus-for-female-owned-sole-proprietorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">frequented by Hunter Biden</a> received a $20,000 coronavirus check through the PPP program for her &#8220;female owned sole proprietorship,&#8221; listing it as being in the sector of &#8220;Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers.&#8221; Emails on Hunter&#8217;s laptop show that much of the prostitute&#8217;s money went to drugs.
Another individual listing the same address as that prostitute also received a PPP loan on May 5, 2021 even though she appears to have been in prison for credit card theft until late 2019.
On May 26, the SBA’s Inspector General said the levels of fraud present in the PPP program were “unprecedented,” and that SBA “did not have an organizational structure with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and processes to manage and handle potentially fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans across the program. In addition, the agency did not establish a centralized entity to design, lead, and manage fraud risk. This problem occurred because the agency did not establish a sufficient fraud risk framework at the start of and throughout PPP implementation.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-allowing-former-taliban-employees-to-migrate-to-u-s-under-refugee-program-billed-as-for-interpreters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Allowing Former Taliban Employees To Migrate To U.S. Under Refugee Program Billed As For ‘Interpreters’</a>

HRH The Prince Of Wales Visits Nigeria

Nigerian Prince Alert: Feds’ Coronavirus Loan Program Paid $1 Billion To People Who Applied From Other Countries

Feds' Coronavirus Loan Program Paid $1 Billion To People Who Applied From Other Countries

COVID-19

California sent food stamp cards loaded with up to $1,700 to residents in parts of North County San Diego, including to the mailboxes of numerous high-income residents, according to a new report.
RealClearPolitics <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/04/07/calif_sent_pandemic_food_stamps_to_affluent_families_147437.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Thursday that the pre-loaded cards were mailed to the homes of students from at least two high schools, which could include more than one card per student. The communities involved in the report include median household incomes between $138,078 to $200,000.
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New from <a href="https://twitter.com/RealClearNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealClearNews</a>: Calif. Sent Pandemic Food Stamps to Thousands of Affluent Families &#8211; Biden Admin Defends the Move as Lawful Amid Intensifying Debate Over More Accountability for COVID Funds <a href="https://t.co/uxN63aQ8tw">https://t.co/uxN63aQ8tw</a>
&mdash; Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) <a href="https://twitter.com/susancrabtree/status/1512035955481272322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
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According to the report, the eligibility method used to send out the payments appeared to include schools that fit into a federal school lunch category.
&#8220;A California DSS spokesperson tells RCP that 854 schools in the state fit into the same federal school lunch category as the two schools in North County San Diego where all students received the cards – Torrey Pines High School and La Costa Canyon High School,&#8221; the report noted.
&#8220;If all students at these schools received the cards regardless of income, as appears to be the case, it would amount to more than $1 billion in federal P-EBT going to California students who usually wouldn’t qualify for federal reimbursement for free breakfasts and lunches,&#8221; it added.
California DSS spokesperson Theresa Mier told the outlet there were 853 Provision 2 schools across the state in which the entire student body received the food cards.
RealClearPolitics further noted that the widespread food card program may extend beyond California. The report cited an Atlanta-area school system that mentioned several thousand students receiving similar cards.
&#8220;A spokesperson with the Georgia Department of Human Services said some students are automatically eligible for the benefit if they attend a Community Eligibility Provision school, which is why thousands of students across the state received P-EBT cards in the mail,&#8221; 11-Alive News Atlanta <a href="https://www.11alive.com/article/news/education/mcbath-student-meals-georgia-pebt/85-3c7d81b4-0275-4fcb-b152-04a0ead26841" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
In California, the concern includes both sending the pre-loaded cards to affluent households as well as complaints that an alleged $183 million in cards did not reach needy families.
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Community complaints arise over reports of high school students using the P-EBT debit cards on trips to Wholefoods for sushi and cookouts, graduation parties. Meanwhile, Calif. state auditor finds $183 million in cards didn’t get to needy families
&mdash; Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) <a href="https://twitter.com/susancrabtree/status/1512039123082629128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman, the ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee overseeing the school lunch programs, shared a statement claiming that, if true, the misuse of funds is &#8220;wrong&#8221; and &#8220;fuels erosion of trust.&#8221;
“USDA has not chosen to share this information with us, but if true, it raises a number of concerns,” Boozman told RCP in the statement. “Congress never intended for the Pandemic EBT program to be used in the manner described. It is supposed to be administered in a targeted and means-tested way to ensure it reaches those who need the assistance. Misuse of taxpayer funds in this manner is wrong and what fuels erosion of trust in these programs.”
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Sen. <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnBoozman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnBoozman</a> tells <a href="https://twitter.com/RealClearNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealClearNews</a>: Congress never intended for the Pandemic EBT program to be used this way, says states should be targeting the funds to needy families. “Misuse of taxpayer funds in this manner is wrong and what fuels erosion of trust in these programs.”
&mdash; Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) <a href="https://twitter.com/susancrabtree/status/1512041544437493766?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The news comes as Republicans in the Senate successfully blocked a supplemental funding bill for COVID-19 relief amid growing calls to continue Title 42 immigration restrictions. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-gop-blocks-covid-funding-over-fight-to-keep-trump-era-immigration-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>:
<blockquote>All 50 Republicans in the Senate voted against advancing the bill Tuesday, along with Democratic  Senators Ron Wyden (OR) and Chuck Schumer (NY). According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/06/gop-blocks-senate-covid-bill-over-push-for-title-42-restoration/">New York Post</a>, Schumer changed his vote at the last minute, a procedural move so that he could bring the bill to the floor again. Democrats need 60 votes to pass a procedural hurdle needed to advance the bill to debate and a vote, but Republicans threatened to kill the bill unless their demands for an amendment to keep Title 42 in place are met. The Trump-era rule which allowed the U.S. to expel migrants coming into the country during the COVID-19 pandemic is set to end on May 23.
“There’ll have to be an amendment on Title 42 to move the bill,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters at a press conference after the vote, via <a href="https://thehill.com/news/senate/3259916-gop-blocks-advancing-covid-19-deal-amid-trump-era-immigration-fight/">The Hill</a>. “There are several other amendments that we’re going to want to offer, and so we’ll need to enter into some kind of agreement to process these amendments in order to go forward with the bill.”</blockquote>

Gavin Newsom

California Sent $1,700 COVID-19 Food Stamp Cards To High-Income Families: Report

COVID

FBI officials said several nonprofits in the Minneapolis area misappropriated tens of millions of dollars of COVID-19 relief that was supposed to help children.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/us/politics/food-aid-nonprofits-fraud-investigation.html?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=news_tab&amp;fb_news_token=Y3Sqn1h0a8Pbyr3U5SZ2iw%3D%3D.ZMyCIyrtV5xzrWJkn2RGZ7egEEkCKK3tzZmay1lVIdmuobk7kwZ1UJqDdNDsy%2B4n9ZaEtgML68ulGHtUfzWuKCupa1VeUaLzRy5uo8TPkmoiBset5OO%2Bgiqe5wXQnALYQ38vcqt9Wy3vd7XaVFY6LIMPMOfOFdNshG7H8cfVGBYaemZdhAF7v81NNPx0HXWYpIsAdBRNhdJ2eEdvTpIqXbMbhAvU%2Bk%2B6CUTWaOMaIY%2BvVwkEuVb5sp90pUUNzfBFtYmYM0kbBlEEQ8fztGSIi%2FRpbZ2oQmDtQylu%2FLdxw89DHGi649XE6RexIBQEsn2q">reported</a> that “a nonprofit organization called Advance Youth Athletic Development [AYAD] set up what it described as an enormous child care operation in northeast Minneapolis that could prepare 5,000 dinners each weeknight.”
The organization was awarded $3.2 million by the state of Minnesota using funds from federal food programs that were dispersed during the pandemic.
In January, however, the FBI “carried out a series of predawn raids around the region,” The Times reported. The FBI was investigating AYAD and similar groups, including the much larger Feeding Our Future, which was supposed to ensure federal funds provided to the smaller nonprofits were spent properly.
The FBI said in court documents reviewed by The Times that it discovered a “massive fraud scheme” among the groups overseen by Feeding Our Future that charged taxpayers for nonexistent meals and pocketed tens of millions of dollars. From The Times:
<blockquote>In affidavits filed in federal court, the Justice Department said it was investigating at least 15 different feeding operations. Together, the F.B.I. said, these groups — all of which were supposed to be overseen by Feeding Our Future — had received more than $65 million from federal food programs during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Almost none of this money was used to feed children,” the government wrote in one filing. “Instead, conspirators misappropriated the money and used it to purchase real estate, cars and other items.”
When a reporter recently visited the address listed for Advance Youth Athletic Development, there was no sign of a kitchen or a large child care facility. It was a second-story apartment.</blockquote>
A neighbor in the building told the outlet that she had “never seen any kids going” into the apartment listed on the address, certainly not 5,000.
No one has been charged yet in the case.
This is simply the latest in a long list of investigations into the allegedly fraudulent use of COVID-19 funds. As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/paycheck-protection-program">documented</a>, many have been charged with using Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds for things other than payroll. Most recently, two New Jersey residents were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/two-charged-with-running-alleged-3-3-million-fraudulent-covid-scheme">charged</a> with allegedly obtaining nearly $3.3 million in coronavirus relief funds and using those funds to set up “sham payroll companies” and purchase property in Texas. The two also allegedly used the funds to pay personal expenses.
Another <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/twin-brothers-ran-1m-covid-19-scheme-bought-camaro-and-crypto-doj">recent case</a> involved twin brothers who allegedly ran a $1 million COVID-19 scheme, buying themselves cryptocurrencies and a Camaro.
Then there was the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/online-lending-platform-gave-millions-in-ppp-loans-to-fake-farms-with-ludicrous-names">case</a> of the lending platform, Kabbage, which reportedly gave 378 small loans to fake business entities for a total of $7 million. Each of the fake businesses were “structured as single-person operations and received close to the largest loan for which such micro-businesses were eligible,” ProPublica <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/ppp-farms?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social#1066696">reported</a>.
Another <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dc-pastor-allegedly-used-coronavirus-relief-funds-to-buy-39-cars-and-a-house">case</a> involved a D.C. pastor allegedly using relief funds to purchase 39 cars and a house.

Two 3 years old twins girls taking their breakfast

FBI Investigating ‘Massive Fraud’ In Nonprofits Purportedly Providing Food For Children Using COVID-19 Funds

Children

Two New Jersey residents who allegedly obtained nearly $3.3 million in coronavirus relief fund payouts and bought properties in Texas are being charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as the government continues to crack down on federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud.
Jean E. Rabbitt, 51, allegedly submitted fraudulent PPP applications for four of her businesses, with fraudulent payroll records and tax records. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), however, told the DOJ that none of the tax records submitted for the funds were ever filed with the agency.
After receiving about $3.3 million, Rabbitt allegedly had Kevin Aguilar, also 51, create &#8220;sham payroll companies,&#8221; a <a href="https://www.fdicoig.gov/press-release/former-monmouth-county-residents-charged-33-million-paycheck-protection-program-fraud">press release</a> stated. Checks were written from businesses operated by Rabbitt to her other businesses, followed by the two allegedly transferring money to companies created by Aguilar. The then-Monmouth County, New Jersey, residents used the money to buy properties in Sherman, Texas, and &#8220;pay for personal expenses.&#8221;
Rabbitt is being charged with bank fraud, while the two are being charged with conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, according to the DOJ.
&#8220;Rabbitt also made false and fraudulent statements and used falsified and fraudulent documents in support of applications for forgiveness of certain of the PPP loans,&#8221; the justice department said. &#8220;Based on Rabbitt’s false and fraudulent certifications and documents, the SBA paid more than $2 million dollars to lenders in connection with the fraudulent PPP loans Rabbitt obtained.&#8221;
Counts of &#8220;conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison,&#8221; the press release stated. Each count of bank fraud carries a 30-year maximum prison sentence, accompanied by a $1 million fine.
The DOJ has continued to fight COVID relief fraud through its enforcement task force established in May 2021. The program has been rife with fraud, with one <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3906395">report</a> from August 2021 claiming 15% of loans given out were fraudulent. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday evening during his State of the Union address that the DOJ will appoint a chief prosecutor for coronavirus-related fraud.
&#8220;We&#8217;re gonna go after the criminals who stole billions of relief money meant for small business and millions of Americans,&#8221; the president said. The White House said the agents will &#8220;use state-of-the-art data analytics tools&#8221; to follow identity fraud and schemes in connection with PPP.
The U.S. Secret Service <a href="https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2021/12/us-secret-service-names-national-pandemic-fraud-recovery-coordinator">announced</a> in December 2021 it had appointed a senior official, Roy Dotson, to be the National Pandemic Fraud Recovery Coordinator. That same month, the agency also said investigations have led to the seizing of more than $1.2 billion in illegally obtained money and $2.3 billion being returned through Automated Clearing House reversals.
The DOJ declined The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.
Related:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/twin-brothers-ran-1m-covid-19-scheme-bought-camaro-and-crypto-doj">Twin Brothers Ran $1M COVID-19 Scheme, Bought Camaro And Crypto: DOJ</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-jersey-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-fraudulently-receiving-millions-in-covid-small-business-relief-funds">New Jersey Man Sentenced To Prison For Fraudulently Receiving Millions In Covid Small Business Relief Funds</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/labor-unions-took-37-million-of-ineligible-covid-relief-from-government">Labor Unions Took $37 Million Of Ineligible COVID Relief From Government</a></li>
</ul>
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COVID Relief

Two Charged With Running Alleged $3.3 Million ‘Fraudulent’ COVID Scheme

A Republican congressman is demanding the IRS look into just how many terrorists and death row inmates received stimulus checks during the pandemic, after reports confirmed that dangerous criminals, such as the Boston Marathon bomber, received checks.
As The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/irs-probed-for-stimulus-checks-sent-to-terrorists-murderers/">reported</a>, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) sent a letter earlier this month to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig requesting “information regarding the payment of Covid-19 Economic Impact Payments (EIP) to incarcerated persons.”
In his short letter, Bacon requested answers to the following questions:
<ol>
<li>How many EIPs have been disbursed to incarcerated individuals at the federal and state level?</li>
<li>How many EIPs have been disbursed to incarcerated individuals on death row at the federal and state level?</li>
<li>How many EIPs have been disbursed to incarcerated individuals serving life sentences without the possibility of parole?</li>
<li>In what format have EIPs been disbursed – via paper check or debit card?</li>
<li>How many EIPs were received as the recovery rebate credit?</li>
<li>To date, what is the total dollar value of EIPs disbursed to incarcerated individuals?</li>
<li>How many EIP requests are backlogged due to paperwork processing delays?</li>
<li>Have EIPs that were clawed back by the IRS prior to the court decision been disbursed again?</li>
</ol>
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boston-marathon-bomber-received-1400-covid-relief-check-from-bidens-stimulus-bill-reports">reported</a> in January that the Boston Marathon bomber, who will not be named due to company policy regarding notoriety for mass murderers, received a $1,400 COVID relief check in the summer of 2021. Federal prosecutors reportedly sought to seize the money in order to pay restitution to the bomber’s victims.
At the time, Boston 25 News <a href="https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/boston-marathon-bomber-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-got-1400-covid-relief-payment/BVKRJUHHHVEIFBVS5IM3INNDNI/">reported</a> that the convicted terrorist’s account received numerous deposits after he was sentenced:
<ul>
<li>The Defendant received a $1,400 COVID relief payment on June 22, 2021.</li>
<li>Between May 2016 and June 2021, the Defendant received multiple deposits from the Office of Federal Defenders of New York. The amounts varied between $40 and $250, totaling approximately $11,230.</li>
<li>Between August 2015 and August 2021, an individual residing in Indianapolis, Indiana, made monthly deposits between $30 and $60, totaling approximately $2,555.</li>
<li>Between August 2015 and December 2017, an individual residing in Bloomfield, New Jersey, made monthly deposits of $50, totaling approximately $1,450.</li>
<li>Between September 2013 and December 2018, an individual residing in Frederick, Maryland, made periodic deposits between $50 to $200, totaling approximately $950.</li>
<li>$3,486.60 from 32 other individuals.</li>
</ul>
“In light of the Defendant’s payment history and incarceration status, the United States requests that this Court enter an Order authorizing the BOP to turn over all funds, held in the Defendant’s inmate trust account, including any funds subject to an administrative hold by BOP, to the Clerk of Court as payment toward the outstanding criminal monetary penalties imposed against the Defendant,” prosecutors said at the time. “The United States submits that the requested relief is reasonable and appropriate in this instance, especially in light of the Defendant prioritizing payments to his siblings over the victims of his crimes.”
The Free Beacon noted that after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) warned out the potential for terrorists like the Boston Marathon bomber to receive COVID-relief funds, so-called fact checkers said he was wrong. They later backtracked after it was confirmed the Boston bomber did receive the funds.
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Row of Prison Cells

GOP Congressman Wants IRS To Investigate How Many Terrorists, Death Row Inmates Received Stimulus Checks

Stimulus Checks

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