United States: More than a quarter of a trillion dollars embezzled

A report issued by the US Congress, following a two-year investigation, revealed that more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in government aid allocated during the Covid pandemic was embezzled.

According to a report released by the House Oversight Committee’s Covid Subcommittee, scammers have managed to inflict more than $191 billion in damage on American taxpayers by exploiting the federal unemployment insurance program and stealing citizens’ personal data.

The report also noted that at least another $64 billion in public funds were misappropriated through fraudulent use of the Paycheck Protection Program, a program in which the government provided loans to Americans to support them during the crisis, with the possibility of those loans being forgiven if used to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

The report also reported that an additional $200 million was lost due to weak oversight of small business support.