Pandemic Relief Efforts Were Marred By Fraud And Incompetence

When COVID-19 struck, it was an unprecedented time for citizens and officials who rushed to make important decisions. In many cases, the knee-jerk reaction was to throw money at the problem.

While investments in certain areas were certainly justified, we can now take a look in the rearview and realize that much of this cash was squandered, pilfered, or just flat-out wasted.

Harden criminals and next-door neighbors

Here’s a broad overview of how widespread the problem was, as evidenced by an in-depth analysis by the Associated Press:

• About $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funds was stolen.
• Roughly $123 billion more was either misallocated or lost.
• One-tenth of all funds fell into one of these two categories.

And before you start thinking that this was all the work of organized criminal outfits, you might want to check out the details a bit more closely.

There were stories of ordinary working folks like a Montana roofer, a soldier in Georgia, and even some Texas pastors that were caught up in fraud involving COVID-19 money.

Why the problem became so widespread

As with most serious issues, the problem can be traced back to its roots. Since government cash was flowing fast and freely, there was far too little real-time oversight about how this cash was being spent.

Even though the Department of Treasury operates a thorough database to keep tabs on potential risks, those who applied for federal emergency loans during the pandemic were not cross-referenced with this list.

Dan Fruchter of the Eastern District of Washington’s U.S. Attorney’s Office was pretty blunt about the “endless pot of money that anyone could access” during the darkest days of COVID-19.

“Folks kind of fooled themselves into thinking that it was a socially acceptable thing to do, even though it wasn’t legal,” he said.

Chris Agee June 13th, 2023

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