$400B in pandemic aid possibly stolen, improperly distributed: AP investigation 

An investigation by The Associated Press found that more than $400 billion in federal emergency pandemic aid was possibly stolen or wasted.

The Trump and Biden administrations approved a combined $5.2 trillion in COVID-19 relief funding, the AP noted. Its analysis estimated that fraudsters stole about $280 billion in pandemic aid, and another $123 billion was wasted or misspent, combining to roughly 10 percent of the $4.2 trillion already disbursed by the government.

The Justice Department established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in 2021 to investigate fraud in emergency pandemic spending. The AP analysis noted that more than 2,230 defendants have been charged in connection with pandemic-related fraud crimes.

Michael Horowitz, the inspector general who chaired the federal Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told Congress last year the fraud is “clearly in the tens of billions of dollars.” He said at the time that the total could eventually exceed more than $100 billion.

“I’m hesitant to get too far out on how much it is,” he told the AP recently. “But clearly it’s substantial and the final accounting is still at least a couple of years away.”

The Small Business Administration spearheaded two significant pandemic relief aid initiatives, the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection programs. These programs were responsible for doling out billions in aid but did not include key safety nets meant to protect the programs from fraud schemes, like allowing borrowers to “self-certify” their applications, the analysis said.

The AP’s analysis said the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection programs lost $86 billion and $20 billion, respectively, to fraud.

Gene Sperling, the White House American Rescue Plan coordinator, told the news service the loss total “emanates overwhelmingly from three programs that were designed and originated in 2020 with too many large holes that opened the door to criminal fraud.”

“We came into office when the largest amounts of fraud were already out of the barn,” Sperling added.

Earlier this year, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee group issued a report that found nearly 70,000 “questionable” Social Security numbers were used to obtain federal loans from these programs.

In March, President Biden introduced a three-part proposal to combat pandemic-related fraud. His proposal included ramping up investigations to prosecute those who engaged in fraudulent schemes, investing in fraud protection and helping victims of identity theft.