Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / The taxpayer was getting ROBBED Fraud 'czar'

Transcript

The taxpayer was getting ROBBED Fraud 'czar' · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: When you hear the word fraud, you may think of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a scam email or a stolen credit card. But fraud
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: against the American taxpayer is happening on an entirely different scale.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We're talking an estimated hundreds of billions.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Of dollars lost every year.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: It's why the vice president's anti-fraud task force came to be,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and they've been busy. This week, they announced $ 40 million
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in snap fraud, with more than 40 suspects behind the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: alleged schemes. They took to the streets of New York
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: City confronting senior centers over suspicious Medicaid billing. And the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: White House unveiled the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program and its
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: website offering financial rewards for tips that bring fraudsters to justice.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Joining me now is the man leading that effort, Assistant
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Attorney General Colin McDonald. Colin, look, you guys have been
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: so busy, and you've said that fraudsters have been essentially
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: trying to rob the U.S.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Blind.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: And this week, we saw just how emboldened they've actually gotten.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Less than 50 suspects stealing snap money that could have
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: fed 220,000 Americans.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: For the month of October.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Tell me how this problem got so out of hand
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and really became so big.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Well, great to be with you, Laura. Thank you.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: It's not an exaggeration to say that President Trump has
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: uncovered the greatest heist in human history, and it was
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: the taxpayer.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Getting fooled and getting robbed.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: This most recent surge that you've just discussed there, this
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: snap surge, this was a 50-day surge where we focused—
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: on those who are defrauding SNAP. And, Laura, if there
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: was ever a program that a fraudster might say, that's
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: too noble, that's too compassionate, it helps too many people,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to take from it, it would be SNAP.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: This is a program that makes sure that food gets
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: on the table of our needy families tonight in America.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: These are crimes that result in a mother in the
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: grocery store trying to buy milk and eggs, swiping her card,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: with her SNAP benefits, to find that a fraudster has
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: depleted her account by stealing her account. So there she
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: is in line with her kids, with no money, trying
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: to bring home her milk and eggs, but a fraudster
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: has taken them. We also see a range of other
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: fraud schemes exploiting vulnerable people.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: We're not going to stand for it.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: The vice president and the president have commissioned us to
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: go after these fraudsters, and that's what we're doing.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you've also been labeled the fraud czar
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: because you are in charge of all of this. And look,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: there is no low that is too low for some
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of these individuals who have been scamming the American people.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: You also recently announced the first ever nationwide.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Tax fraud surge, 76.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Defendants with more than $ 490 million in alleged or proven
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: intended losses. So Colin, once that money is stolen and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: it has been spent, how difficult is it to actually recover?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Well, Laura, it's very difficult to recover.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: If government actors responsible for doling out money, if they're
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: not responsible public stewards of that money and it goes
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: to a fraudster, it's very hard to return that to
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: the American people. We are doing that, though, in very
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: novel ways in the fraud division. For instance, just this
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: week on Monday, we filed a civil forfeiture complaint in
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Minnesota against seeking to claw back about half a city
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: block of property that was purchased using fraud proceeds in
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: a fraud scheme that targeted money meant to feed hungry
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: children in Minnesota. So we filed that first-of-its-kind civil forfeiture
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: complaint in Minnesota. We also are building out an asset
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: recovery team of specialists in our fraud division to hunt
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: down the money.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: If it went to purchase.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: a Ferrari or a Maserati or a apartment building in
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Kenya or whatever it might be, we are building a
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: team to find where the money went to then forfeit
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: that property and win it back for the American people.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Wow. Well, I'm so glad that you guys are paying
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: attention to this. We also saw Dr. Oz confronting senior
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: centers for suspicious billing this week in New York and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. The DOJ is prosecuting a woman who organized
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: sham marriages in a decade-long immigration fraud scheme. Also, Colin,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: over in California, we saw election fraud charges against more
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: than two dozen people. Like I said, you guys have
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a lot going on. When you have criminals taking advantage
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of such critical systems, though, how do you crack down
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: without making it harder for those doing the right things
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the right way?
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a great question, Laura, because our goal here
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: is to make these critical programs work better for the
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: people that they are intended to serve and actually reach
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: the beneficiaries that Congress has identified as being the rightful
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: beneficiaries of these very compassionate programs.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: An analogy I would give would be this.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Let's say that you have broken your arm and you
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: go to the emergency room needing urgent care, but there
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: are 20 people.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Ahead of you in line.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: You don't expect that those 20 people, that out of
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: the 20, that 12 of them are fraudsters clogging up
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: that line, keeping you from receiving the urgent care that
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: you need.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: But that's what we see in these programs across the board.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: From Snap to HUD to.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: SBA to Social Security, you name it, there are fraudsters
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: clogging up the line, keeping needy people from receiving the
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: services that we need. So that's what we're doing. We
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: are looking to get the fraudsters out of line so
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: that the people who need these benefits can get them
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: at exactly the right moment that they need them.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, before I let you go, I want to
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: quickly talk about the new whistleblower incentive program. I thought
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: this was great. We saw Nick Shirley in the Oval
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Office this week as the first recipient for his work
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: exposing all of that fraud that we saw in Minnesota.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And while I know it's only been a few days,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: has there been any traction or new tips on this website?
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: So, Laura, in the last few days, we've received thousands
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: of tips through this new tip line.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: This is a novel approach, a novel approach to try
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: new things to combat the fraudsters. They are constantly evolving
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: in their tools that they use, but the federal government
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: never evolves. We never put new tools in our toolbox.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: We always just do the same old thing, And we
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: expect somehow to reach new results. Well, President Trump has
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: said we're not going to do that anymore. We are
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: going to do new things. And that this whistleblower program
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: is an example of that, where folks can get upfront
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: payment when there is an arrest and not have to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: wait to the very end of a case, which is
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: what every other whistleblower program in history has done. This
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: is a first-of-its-kind whistleblower program. We are bringing new tools
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: to the fight against fraud so that the fraudsters are
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: not the only ones learning. We are learning, too, and
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: we're equipped with the full toolbox to confront them.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Well, of course, Donald Trump is the one to do
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it as our president. Colin, keep up the great work
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: out there. Thanks so much for spending time with us.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: We appreciate it.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: My pleasure, Lara. Thank you. Be sure to like and
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: catch full shows streaming now on Fox 1.