USA: Using fictitious social security numbers, fraudsters may have stolen $5.4 billion in pandemic loans from two US Covid-19 relief programmes, claims a report released on Monday by watchdog group the Pandemic Response Action Committee. Before a House of Representatives hearing on wasteful pandemic spending, the report was released.
According to the report, loans were disbursed under the Covid-19 Emergency Injury Disaster Loans and Paycheck Protection Program to 69,323 "questionable" Social Security numbers, which were either not issued by the federal government at all or did not correspond to the actual holder's name or birthdate.
The sum represents almost a third of the 221,427 SSNs that the organisation flagged as possibly fraudulent after sending the Social Security Administration data on loan applicants to check whether the personal data on the 33 million applications matched the listed SSNs.
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Due to the "elevated urgency" of the situation, the PRAC acknowledged that both pandemic relief funds were unusually "susceptible" to fraud. It also noted that the implementation process for SSN verification agreements among agencies can be "lengthy."
Such information-sharing agreements in place prior to an emergency would guarantee prompt access to verification information and improve federal programme integrity, safeguard taxpayer funds from erroneous payments and fraud, ensure benefits are paid only to those who are truly eligible, and decrease the incidence of identity fraud in government programmes, protecting victims of identity theft.
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Nearly $1.2 trillion was distributed through US pandemic loan programmes to pandemic-affected small businesses, individuals, and opportunists who took advantage of lax oversight to steal the money intended for struggling Americans.
One of the latter was a Miami resident accused last month of stealing $2.1 million from the Paycheck Protection Program and using it to buy a Lamborghini, Rolexes, and designer clothing. A fellow Lamborghini enthusiast from Houston received a sentence of almost 10 years in prison for using his own stolen funds to purchase a Lamborghini SUV, Rolexes, and strippers, while a resident of Las Vegas admitted to stealing $2 million for a Bentley, a Tesla, and luxury condos.
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