Thousands of Americans fraudulently received $ 164 billion in covid aid: why it is unprofitable for the authorities to deal with them

You must have heard how the US government helped ordinary Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic - checks for thousands of dollars from President Donald Trump to everyone, unemployment benefits, support for small businesses. I would be glad - in a difficult moment the state did not quit. But only now, two years later, it turns out that America has experienced perhaps the largest fraud in its history. YouTube channel "Bureau" figured out what happened.

Huge amounts were received by prisoners, people from the black list of non-payers, even those who simply put a dash in the application for financial assistance. According to very rough estimates, the criminals managed to inflate the US budget by $164 billion. This is one tenth of Russia's GDP. This is comparable to the annual budget of, for example, Denmark. Or with the GDP of Hungary. And you still ask why there is such inflation in the USA. In general, now let's figure it out - how it happened and where the Russian trace comes from - it also could not have done without it.

March 2020: In a matter of days, the coronavirus hit almost every state. There are more and more sick people every day. Hospitals are slowly filling up. The authorities at first do not know what to do, but by the end of the month they realize that the only way to somehow control the situation is to announce a lockdown. Each state introduced it differently. But one way or another, in fact, only vital sectors of the economy continued to work. An incredible blow to small and medium-sized businesses. March and April 2020 is the time when every day 1 million Americans lost their jobs. And all these people went for benefits.

Of course, the state machine was not ready for such an influx. But people were already left without work and money, they had to pay their bills. And all this happened against the backdrop of general nervousness due to the pandemic.

Congress promptly passed several bailout packages at once. The Donald Trump administration tried to do something, too.

In total, $ 5 trillion was allocated to help the Americans over these two years. This is astronomical money. The state got into debt just to distribute money to all those in need right now. Perhaps it was the right and timely decision. The only negative is that the whole system was based on trust.

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For example, unemployment benefits. Each state has its own rules here - to whom, how much and on what basis to pay. In Washington, they decided not to let the situation take its course and each unemployed person was paid $600 a week extra from the federal budget. This is very good money even for New York.

The subtlety was that the money came from Washington, but was distributed by local officials. Those decided not to complicate their lives and facilitated the rules to the maximum. That is, it was not necessary to prove that you lost your job - filled out the questionnaire, swore honesty - get the money.

How many Americans received unemployment benefits, but at the same time worked - is unknown. But there have already been proven quite egregious cases. Well, for example, one unemployed man managed to receive benefits in 29 states at once.

A separate story is loans for small businesses. The agency gave away billions of dollars in 2020. In general, the idea is good - small companies that usually exist on the verge of survival anyway - were left without any income during the pandemic. And it's not just business owners, it's employees and their families. In order to somehow make ends meet, entrepreneurs could get a loan of several tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. And again - because of the rush, the companies did not require special evidence. A questionnaire on the site, a signature - and the money was transferred to the account.

Those who only embellished the size of their financial disaster also received money. And there were outright scammers - for example, one swindler received 10 loans for 10 companies. These companies never existed.

What did the scammers spend that money on? Someone paid off the mortgage, someone bought a car, and someone bought a Rolex for $38 or a Pokemon Go collectible card for $57.

Very quickly, an entire industry developed around benefits and loans.

For example, Andrea Ayers of New York State helped others fill out forms to ensure that loans were approved. “Write that you are a baker, they won’t understand it,” Ayers admonished another client. The correspondence was included in the materials of the criminal case.

You can still find many detailed video tutorials on YouTube on how to cheat small business management and get a loan.

The scammers did not hide much and even gave advice on the Internet. The apogee of this gold rush was the clip of the Californian rapper Nuke Bizzle. The track is called EDD, just like the California department that pays unemployment benefits.

The hero of the clip received dozens of benefits in the name of strangers. And he started throwing money around. It turned out that the story is based on real events. The rapper was detained in Las Vegas (Nevada) with a bunch of other people's bank cards. He faces jail for fraud.

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Whole gangs – not only from the US, but from Nigeria, Russia and Eastern Europe – sent thousands of applications for fake names.

Quite specific and real Americans suffered from this. For example, Natalie Perez from Florida applied for unemployment benefits in July 2020 and found out that someone on her behalf has been receiving benefits for a long time. It took Natalie 18 months to overcome the bureaucratic system, prove that she was a victim of fraud - and receive legitimate payments.

450 people have already been convicted. Another XNUMX are under investigation. Do you know what the line of defense of lawyers is? The state itself is to blame for handing out money too easily and simply, it was a sin not to use it. Therefore, scammers should be treated with indulgence.

But the likelihood that all fraudsters will be found and punished is minimal. The Small Business Administration found 2 million suspicious applications - they still need to be checked. Who is doing this? 500 people in the inspector general's offices across the country. Well, of course, the FBI and the Secret Service, but they have plenty of other things to do as well.

But the most important thing is that it is simply unprofitable for the state to investigate these cases. Well, a person got $10 by deceit, and the investigation and legal costs will cost the budget even more. It's better to forget about it.