Fraudsters stole $4.4 billion from DES, and it could happen again

[TexasTowelie]

During the pandemic, fraudsters stole $4.4 billion in federal COVID CARES Act unemployment money from the Arizona Department of Economic Security, and experts say it is bound to happen again.

“This was a completely preventable issue and it was not hard to fix,” Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions Government Group, a public records database, fraud-prevention and identity-verification company that provides its services to journalists, corporations and government agencies said.

The issue that the Arizona Auditor General discovered was that the department lacked “critical identity verification or other anti-fraud measures” in place prior to paying out the $4.4 billion in fraudulent claims.

Arizona wasn’t alone in this problem, either.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that $63 billion of the $630 billion in disbursements has been misspent, with some experts saying that the number is likely well over $100 billion in fraud. California lost $11 billion but the end tally could be as high as $30 billion, while Nebraska officials have said that nearly 66% of their unemployment money was misspent, as well.

Read more: https://www.azmirror.com/2021/11/10/fraudsters-stole-4-4-billion-from-des-and-it-could-happen-again/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. They could have just sent everyone $2000 a month

That would have kept the whole system going. But no, they had to feed the crooks. They had to know with minimal application rules, no payback, and verification delayed for the most part, there would be graft.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. A tale as old as time. Federal money never gets distributed properly.