Latest / Your Leo Nation / COVID Relief Fraud: Who Pays? | Chief Mark Garrett
Transcript
- Mark Garrett: In one case out of the Western District of Missouri, which encompasses Kansas City, Jamie Gray allegedly attempted to steal more than $55 million from tax buyerpayers by filing hundreds of these loans. He claimed to own dozens of businesses that were in operation prior to the pandemic. But in every instance but one, these businesses didn't even exist. That was our fantastic attorney general last week in Kansas City, Missouri, talking about the fraud being uncovered and prosecuted regarding COVID relief programs. Vice President J.D. Vance announced the Trump administration will suspend roughly 870,000 people suspected of defrauding pandemic era small business programs from receiving future federal loans. Quote If you screwed the American taxpayer, the federal government is now going to say you're cut off. No more. You shouldn't be applying anymore. And if you do apply, you're no longer able to get those benefits. Now, this is just a start. This is 870,000 people that are suspended because of lack of repayment, maybe fraud, maybe criminal investigations and prosecutions are coming out of that. But Pushing a million people that we know have scammed the American people in one way or another. His remarks came as the Justice Department announced a slew of cases in a nationwide crackdown on fraud involving the COVID-19 era paycheck protection program, or PPP. The department's enforcement push, which ran from June 12th through September 1st. Was dubbed Heartland Fraud Surge, resulted in actions lobbying more than a hundred and sixty defendants, and approximately two hundred and forty-five million dollars in intended losses to taxpayers. This is so important to remember, folks, this is not fraud against the federal government. It is legally, but effectively, it is fraud against you and Me. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Small business administration, administrator Kelly Lothur said the suspensions announced by the vice president are tied to an estimated, get this: $39 billion in suspected fraud from across 45 states and territories, combined with earlier enforcement actions. Loffler said the SBA has now suspended borrowers connected to roughly forty-nine billion dollars in alleged fraud across all fifty states. Now remember, for purposes of this press conference, we're just talking about fraud involving COVID, COVID relief. But we cannot forget about the bigger picture. The global Abuse through fraud in this country, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, and it goes on and on and on. It's well documented. Ladies and gentlemen, this is yet another example of when you have big government, you have big waste. When you have big government, you have big fraud. When you have big government, You have big theft. You have big loss of dollars from the American people because criminals have, they do, and will always exist and take advantage of weak government oversight. Exposing these criminals is only the first step, Loffler said. This summer we refer twenty-two billion dollars to the United States Treasury for. Collections. Now look. We all understand that gas and food and general living expenses are still high, higher than we would like for them to be. I am very confident they are going to come down soon and rapidly. Every single American pocket who pays taxes is being picked right now through abuse, through fraud of government programs. Plain and simple. I would much rather have that money back in my pocket, stop paying into these ridiculous programs that were absolutely abused, and not just by individual criminals that the attorney general referred to at the beginning of this monologue. In this press conference, they talked about the huge, the massive global impact of this fraud. In twenty twenty three. The SBA inspector general estimated that more than two hundred billion dollars in PPP and COVID economic injury disaster loan frauds might have been funneled to quote potentially fraudulent actors, an estimate based solely on unearthed fraud indicators in data analytics. Congress previously extended. The statute of limitations for investigation into potential PPP and COVID-related fraud for 10 years. That's a good thing. Giving prosecutors until 2030 or 2031 to bring forward additional cases. This is extraordinarily good that they did this in 2022, our Congress. But like I said, I want to finish on this point. We opened with again top blanch talking about this character, this one guy, what was it fifty, sixty million dollars in potential theft from taxpayers across the country? But in my mind, in my opinion, there are much bigger players involved here. And I'm talking about individual state governments, ladies and gentlemen. Remember the high speed train, the bullet train? Now it's the train to nowhere, because that's exactly where it's going in California. Remember that project? In 2008, the original budget for that project was about thirty-three billion dollars. Now one estimate put the older full project scope at about two hundred thirty billion dollars. In my opinion, this raises serious questions about waste, oversight, and accountability. Taxpayers deserve answers about where their money is going. So I want you to think about this. States like California, as a matter of fact, all 50 states, responsible or irresponsible, but all 50 states got funding, direct funding from the federal government to the respective state governments, not the individuals. This is an addition. The CARES Act, March of 2020, established 150. billion coronavirus relief fund which sent direct flexible payments to states territorial tribal governments with a minimum allocation of 1.25 billion per state obviously much larger for the larger states later on American Rescue Plan Act March of 2021 provided an additional three hundred and fifty billion dollars Through the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds to deliver direct emergency funding to state, local, and tribal governments to offset revenue losses and fund ongoing public health recovery. Whatever that means. You talk about these completely meaningless phrases, ongoing health recovery. I am telling you right now, I am absolutely convinced through observation that states abused and stole from the federal government as much as any individual did. And we will never see that money again. I would love to get your thoughts on this. Just how much money do you think? We lost as taxpayers through the coronavirus funding scam. For your early donation, I am the chief Mark Garrett. God bless you. See you next time. ⁓