Over the last three years, thieves plundered billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid. Here are some key takeaways from an Associated Press analysis of what may have been stolen or wasted.
WASHINGTON — The greatest grift in U.S. history was brazen, even simple. Criminals and gangs grabbed the money. So did an U.S. soldier in Georgia, the pastors of a defunct church in Texas, a former state lawmaker in Missouri and a roofing contractor in Montana.
People are also reading… That number is certain to grow as investigators dig deeper into thousands of potential schemes. The pilfering was wide but not always as deep as the eye-catching headlines about cases involving many millions of dollars. But all of the theft, big and small, illustrate an epidemic of scams and swindles at a time America was grappling with overrun hospitals, school closures and shuttered businesses. Since the pandemic began in early 2020, more than 1.13 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio | All Of Our Podcasts When the pandemic struck, the agency was assigned to manage two massive relief efforts — the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection programs, which would swell to more than a trillion dollars. SBA's workforce had to get money out the door, fast, to help struggling businesses and their employees.
"It's a false narrative that has been set out, that there are only two choices," Horowitz said."One choice is, get the money out right away. And that the only other choice was to spend weeks and months trying to figure out who was entitled to it."
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The Great Grift: How billions in COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wastedAn Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has disbursed in COVID relief aid.
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The Great Grift: How billions in COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wastedAn Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10…
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