Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Trillions of dollars flowed into federal relief programs, with few strings and minimal oversight, resulting in one of the largest frauds in U.S. history
Millions of Americans sought unemployment benefits during the height of the pandemic.
In the midst of the pandemic, the U.S. government gave unemployment benefits to the incarcerated, the imaginary and the dead. It sent money to "farms" that turned out to be front yards. It paid people who were on the government's "Do Not Pay List." It gave loans to 342 people who said their name was "N/A."
As the virus shuttered businesses and forced people out of work, the federal government sent a flood of relief money into programs aimed at helping the newly unemployed and boosting the economy. That included $3.1 trillion that former President Donald Trump approved in 2020, followed by a $1.9 trillion package signed into law in 2021 by President Joe Biden.
But those dollars came with few strings and minimal oversight. The result: one of the largest frauds in American history, with billions of dollars stolen by thousands of people, including at least one amateur who boasted of his criminal activity on YouTube.
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