Over $200 billion from the U.S. government’s COVID-19 relief programs were potentially stolen, a federal watchdog said on Tuesday, adding that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) had weakened its controls in a rush to disburse the funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least 17% of all funds related to the government’s coronavirus Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) schemes were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors, according to a report released Tuesday<\/a> by the SBA’s office of inspector general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the course of the pandemic, the SBA disbursed about $1.2 trillion of EIDL and PPP funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SBA disputed the more than $200 billion figure put forward by the watchdog and said the inspector general’s approach had significantly overestimated fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The agency said its experts put the potential fraud estimate at $36 billion and added that over 86% of that likely fraud took place in 2020, when the administration for former President Donald Trump was in office. President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fraud estimate put forward by the inspector general for the EIDL program stood at more than $136 billion while the PPP fraud estimate was $64 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The United States is probing<\/a> many fraud cases pegged to U.S. government assistance programs. In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, the U.S. Justice Department tapped federal prosecutor Kevin Chambers to lead its efforts to investigate alleged fraud schemes intending to bilk government pandemic assistance programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September 2022, the inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department said fraudsters likely stole $45.6 billion<\/a> from the United States’ unemployment insurance program during the coronavirus outbreak by applying tactics like using Social Security numbers of deceased individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also in September, federal prosecutors charged dozens of defendants, who were accused of stealing $250 million<\/a> from a government aid program that was supposed to feed children in need during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n