Department of Justice exposes biggest COVID stimulus fraud scheme yet

The Justice Department recently announced the largest fraud claim uncovered in any Covid-19 relief program, accusing 44 people in Minnesota of allegedly committing fraud against anti-hunger programs during the pandemic, stealing $240 million. The group billed the government for meals “they did not serve to children who did not exist,” The New York Times reported. The brazen fraud stands out among the many instances of federal pandemic aid theft. Prosecutors in the North Star State said one accused conspirator told the government he had fed 5,000 children a day in a second-story apartment, The Times reported. The alleged criminals didn’t bother to try to hide their fraud, knowing that little attention would be paid to the details while the government was overwhelmed with applications and intent to get as much money out the door as possible. In one case, The Times reported, defendants used the website listofrandomnames.com to create a fake list of children they could charge for feeding. “Others used a number-generating program to produce ages for the children they were supposedly feeding, which led the ages to fluctuate wildly each time the group updated its list of those nonexistent children,” The Times said, citing court papers in the case. The scheme collected millions of federal dollars every week “because government officials had relaxed oversight of the feeding program during the pandemic and because the accused fraudsters had help from a trusted insider,” The Times reported. Instances of fraud will continue to surface from the most wasteful time in our nation’s history. A time when bureaucrats sent money to criminals, no questions asked. The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com. This article originally appeared on RealClearPolicy. 

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