(Original title: The largest fraud in the history of the United States? The amount may reach 280 billion U.S. dollars, and the government has been taken advantage of! More than 2,000 people have been charged, and some people bought yachts, luxury watches, and repaid mortgages…)
According to a report by the Associated Press quoted by the Global Times on the 12th, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government distributed a total of 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars in huge aid, but about 10% of it did not fall into the hands of the people who really needed it——Up to $280 billion in aid was ‘stolen’ by scammers, another $123 billion wasted or misused,This may be the largest fraud in the history of the United States.
Some experts believe that in the early stage of the epidemic, the government only focused on investing money as soon as possible, lacked supervision, and had very few restrictions on applicants, making it easy for scammers to succeed. Most of the defrauded funds came from the three large-scale epidemic relief plans launched during Trump’s presidency. The plans were originally intended to help small businesses and unemployed workers who were in economic distress during the epidemic. After Biden took office, the plans continued.
Data show that Trump approved a total of US$3.2 trillion in economic aid for the new crown epidemic before leaving office, and then Biden added an additional US$1.9 trillion. U.S. Auditor General Gene Dodro reported to Congress: “This is the U.S. Largest bailout program in history.” Now four-fifths of the $5.1 trillion bailout has been disbursed, its sheer size conceals operational loopholes, such as the ability for borrowers to “self-certify” their loans under special circumstances , and the U.S. Small Business Administration does not have the right to view the applicant’s tax returns, and the loophole will not be corrected until 2022. The bank’s open window and random grant applications “attracted a lot of scammers”, with the watchdog estimating $86 billion in fraud in the COVID-19 loan program and $20 billion in the wage protection program. Studies have shown that there are five times as many suspicious pay stubs in paycheck protection scams alone as there are official ones.The government has charged 2,230 people in connection with the fraud, with thousands more investigations underway.In order to strictly investigate bad debts, the Biden administration has recently proposed a $1.6 billion plan to strengthen efforts to combat fraud and extend the retroactive limitation period from 5 years to 10 years.
Previously, Jiemian News quoted the “Wall Street Journal” news on June 1 that US President Biden and Republican members of Congress reached an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, which will recover tens of billions of dollars in unused new crown relief funds, but reserve them for the next generation. Funding for front-line COVID-19 investments such as vaccines and testing.
According to the legislation,Nearly $30 billion in unspent funds approved during the new crown epidemic was withdrawn, but most of the funds had nothing to do with the new crown epidemic prevention.The legislation has passed the Senate and has already been signed by Biden. The funds will be recovered from a range of agencies that have been considering using the money for projects such as highway infrastructure, disaster loans and rural broadband expansion, according to people familiar with the agreement.
In fact, according to reference sources citing Agence France-Presse reports, in March 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted nearly 500 people who fraudulently received COVID-19 relief funds, involving more than 500 million U.S. dollars.
According to reports, a total of 474 people were involved in the case, and they tried to fraudulently collect $569 million in funds. Among them, at least 120 people tried to defraud the special funds issued to small businesses. A defendant in Texas claimed 15 funds from eight banks in the name of 11 companies, totaling US$24.8 million, and finally received US$17.3 million,And use the money to buy multiple houses, jewelry and luxury cars.The Justice Department also said international organized crime groups also used stolen identities to apply for unemployment benefits. Some scammers are also peddling counterfeit and inferior medicines that are supposed to treat new coronary pneumonia.
According to a report by the Global Times citing the US “Market Watch” website, in November 2021, a 48-year-old physician in Long Island, Constantinos Zakadas, admitted to misappropriating US$3.7 million in aid funds for the new crown epidemic, according to court documents. , Zakadas received a nearly $200,000 loan from the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program,For a down payment on a $1.75 million yacht.To conceal what he had done, Zakadas wrote a check to a relative that read “Pay back wages,” prosecutors said.
Zakadas is also accused of renting luxury cars for tens of thousands of dollars andBuy multiple Rolex and Cartier watches.He also used some of the money to pay nearly $1 million in previous legal judgments against him, prosecutors said. Zakadas is accused of moving funds between multiple bank accounts in order to conceal the origin of the funds.
According to previous reports from Haiwai.com, in July 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 60-year-old former mayor of Shifeng, Georgia, Jason Larry, used his power to misappropriate funds used to support local small businesses and public welfare. Federal funding for health spending.
Under the guise of helping the city distribute aid, the company diverted some of the funds for Larry’s personal expenses.Of the embezzled funds, $108,000 was used to pay off Larry’s Lakeview mortgage, pay off tax debts, and $7,600 to pay for college tuition and rent for the son of one of Larry’s associates.
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