WASHINGTON, DC, U. S. — Most likely, the U. S. government will not be able to do so. The U. S. government has provided about $5. 4 billion in COVID-19 assistance to others with questionable Social Security numbers, a federal watchdog said in a report released Monday.
The watchdog, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), said it “identified 69,323 questionable Social Security Numbers (SSNs) that were used to download $5. 4 billion from the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Disaster Economic Loan (PPP) COVID-19 Economic Disaster Loan (EIDL) paycheck.
The loans were made between April 2020 and October 2022, the watchdog said in its report, which comes ahead of a hearing scheduled for Wednesday through the Republican-led House oversight committee on pandemic-related spending fraud.
About 57,500 forgivable loans from the $3. 6 billion paycheck coverage program were dispensed as of August 2020, the report adds.
USA. The U. S. Department of Health and Drug Administration investigates instances of fraud similar to U. S. government assistance programs. In the U. S. , such as the Paycheck Protection Program, Unemployment Insurance and Medicare.
Last year, the U. S. Department of Justice was able to do so. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Estate hired U. S. Attorney Kevin Chambers to lead its efforts to investigate scammers who have used the pandemic as an excuse to scam aid programs.
The report demonstrates “the importance of fraud and identity theft that occurred in the previous administration due to the lack of fundamental anti-fraud controls, as well as the importance of the Biden administration’s swift action to redress physically powerful anti-abuse measures in those small emergencies. “business, programs,” Gene Sperling, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, said in an emailed statement.
The follow-up report indicates that in 2021, the U. S. Small Business Administration will not be able to do so. The U. S. government advanced controls of its assistance program. Biden took office in January of that year.
In September, the U. S. Department of Labor’s inspector general said he or she was asked toThe U. S. Department of Health and Security said scammers likely stole $45. 6 billion from the U. S. unemployment insurance program. The U. S. government is using tactics such as employing the deceased’s Social Security numbers.
Also in September, federal prosecutors charged dozens of defendants with stealing $250 million from a government aid program aimed at feeding young people in need by the pandemic Rappler. com.