That fraudsters managed to make away with billions of dollars of COVID-19 relief money is no secret. What is not fully known, however, is just how much money was stolen, and how much the government will be able to claw back.
A recent Government Accountability Office report notes that the Justice Department has been trying to get at least some of the money back, and punish those who stole it:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has brought federal fraud-related charges against at least 2,191 individuals or entities in cases involving federal COVID-19 relief programs, consumer scams, and other types of fraud as of June 30, 2023. Based on GAO's analysis of the cases announced in DOJ press releases, at least 1,525 individuals or entities facing fraud-related charges were found guilty or liable. Courts have ordered individuals to pay restitution ranging up to over $60 million and serve prison terms up to 10 years or more.
It's better than nothing. But remember that Uncle Sam flooded the economy with more than $4.6 trillion of relief. That $60 million figure above barely registers as a rounding error.
Especially when we consider the amount of fraud we're talking about:
Despite challenges identifying the full extent of fraud, some estimates of fraud in COVID-19 relief programs exist. For instance, the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) estimated that as of June 2023, SBA disbursed over $200 billion (approximately 17 percent of SBA's total COVID-19 spending) in potentially fraudulent pandemic relief loans. In September 2023, we estimated that the fraud in the Department of Labor's (DOL) unemployment insurance (UI) programs during the pandemic—from April 2020 through May 2023—was likely between $100 billion and $135 billion.
No, we're talking real money. But even these figures are suspect. As the GAO writes:
Because not all fraud will be identified, investigated, and adjudicated through judicial or other systems, the full extent of fraud associated with the COVID-19 relief funds will never be known with certainty.
In other words, there's no bottom to criminality on display here. It ought to serve as a warning to future governments that may face existential threats to their populations and economies.
Throwing money at the problem all but guarantees a lot of it is going to be stolen. You'll never know exactly how much or who did it. But the interest payments on the debt you incurred to write the checks in the first place? Yup, those will have to be paid on time, or else.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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