Fraud and Government Waste is Rampant and Ubiquitous

By Rich Kozlovich

Fraud permeates everything the left touches, and many of those who profess to be on the right are either silent, complacent or complicit.  Then there are those who are happy about it.  In Godfather II gangster Hyman Roth told Michael Corleone, “Michael, we’re bigger than U.S. Steel.” 

The mobsters in “The Godfather” set their sights way too low. If they really wanted to make it big time, they should have targeted federal entitlement programs instead of gamblers and drug addicts. Not only does it pay better, but you can count on one political party to look the other way.  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) figures that fraudsters make off with more than $500 billion of federal taxpayer money a year, plus another $184 billion in “improper payments.” That isn’t just bigger than U.S. Steel. That’s five times as big as the entire steel industry.

1. Treasury Warns of Fraudsters Creating ‘Ghost Students’ to Steal Federal Student Aid.
2.  Beyond Fraud: Citizen Journalists Unmask Crazy Government Waste
3. GAO: Federal fraud could exceed $500B annually
4. GAO Says Fraud Risk High In $1.1T Of State-Run Federal Programs 

Health care costs have skyrocketed in the nation, the cost of health insurance for one can be as high as 10,000 a year.  Make no mistake, a big portion of this was caused by Obamacare, and more by massive levels of fraud.  In one case the Trump administration tracked nearly $300 billion fraud tab of that falls under the domain of the Department of Health and Human Services.  An agency that like all the rest is most likely filled with Deep Staters.  

1. Daycare centers without children taking in over 100 Million from Medicaid
2. The fraud and waste of California's $220 billion dollar Medi-Cal program, which are leaving taxpayers with massive runaway costs, and it got so bad the federal government suspended one billion dollars in Medicaid funds to California and to Minnesota.  More here. 
3. A man in New York stole 19 million in a Medicaid Fraud scheme.  
4. A man in Atlanta stole over five million from a children's hospital.
5. In this case over 2000 native Americans ended up either dead or missing in a scheme for criminals to steal could billions from Medicaid.  
6. Radicals in Wisconsin hiding behind a "nonprofit' scan is in reality protest group that since 2020 has been funded by the "federal government....including from the Department of Justice and state officials."  to the tune of  "$5 million in government funds.  

"For Today’s Democrats, Fraud Is A Feature, Not A Bug"

Its been discovered the left has been faking donations to their fund their political schemes.  ActBlue claims about donors has proven to be troublesome.  From people who said they they've never... ever.. made political donations to a man living in poor conditions having made "7,878 donations worth $93,168".  

“Many of the donors have a high frequency of donations, but low donation amounts,” Corrigan wrote. “These types of financial transactions are often used in money laundering and identity theft crime rings to not arise suspicions with high dollar amount transactions. The victims are chosen carefully because their information is publicly available, and Act Blue already has it.”

 In this case the criminals would be political operatives.  

1.   Concerns over Ilhan Omar's links to massive fraud explode on new evidence
2.   Why Are So Many Muslim Migrants Involved in Massive Fraud Schemes?
3.   Mamdani’s Wife Fundraised for Gaza Then Never Donated the Money 

With fraud at over a half trillion dollars you would might imagine someone would think something needs to be done.  Yet key GAO recommendations are being ignored.  Why?  Because, at least in my opinion, these agencies are filled with Deep Staters and lazy losers, and a Congress that goes on vacation while we're spiraling down a maelstrom of 400 trillion dollars in debt. 

 

There are over 200 programs paid for by the federal government that are run by the states costing 1.2 trillion dollars a year, "and despite their openness to fraud, the government does little to combat it."

Is there a fix?  Yes, and at the very least it's a good start. 

1. There was legislation that required agencies to report on their anti-fraud measures the Congress allowed to lapse in 2020, under .... guess who.... Joe Biden's administration. Congress needs to reimplement that legislation to "drive accountability".
2. Eliminate two thirds of the federal government. 
3. Here’s another option that nobody mentions yet would do much, much more to permanently combat fraud. Stop sending taxpayer money to the states altogether:  

"States have little incentive to combat fraud in these programs. Why should they? It’s not their money they’re trying to protect. If anything, this kind of fraud is good for state politicians. As we saw in Minnesota, it brings lots of money in, and every year they can push for more federal funds by claiming the need is greater than ever."

Will any of this happen? No. Democrats love it and the Republicans are invertebrates.  Remember, no matter how much they wail in sackcloth and ashes, they went on vacation while the nation spirals down a maelstrom of debt.  

Update:  

1. All Democrat State AGs Were Invited To VP Vance’s Anti-Fraud And Corruption Discussion, None Showed. Why? - All Democrats Boycott JD Vance's Anti-Fraud Roundtable, Because They're the Party of Looters and Shooters; Nick Shirley's Right-Hand Man Says That Autism Billing Went Up 47,000% (Which Means 470x) In Past Few Years. 

Update:  

1.  Two federal agencies routed taxpayer dollars to terror-linked charities, new reports find6h ago - Two federal agencies gave away roughly $2 billion in taxpayer-funded health and humanitarian contracts to charities that watchdogs and a Senate committee have flagged for terror ties, meaning the government's own vetting either missed those records or decided their terrorist-linked status didn't disqualify the groups. .....

The Middle East Forum (MEF) recently reported that 14 terror-linked and extremist organizations, led by CAIR, collected nearly $80 million from HHS through the Refugee Resettlement, Health, and Mosque Renovation grants. Through this fund, the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) California chapter received the most of any Islamist group, collecting $42.2 million in funding from the HHS to provide legal and social services to Afghan refugees. 

Update:   

1. Trump’s Fraud Division takes the gloves off in fight against foreign nationals, others - The Department of Justice's fight against fraud is going to the next level. The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division has now released its first comprehensive enforcement strategy. Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald circulated the memo on Thursday to all Fraud Division personnel, highlighting five focus areas: public trust, health care fraud, internal revenue scams, global trade subversion, and corporate misconduct........

Update:

1.  Why Democrats Might Be So Friendly to Medicaid Fraud – 2026  “Don’t look, don’t think” looks to be the attitude politicians from state Sen. John Liu to Gov. Kathy Hochul to then-Health Secretary Xavier Becerra took to what seems blatant Medicaid fraud in Flushing. Donations and other political support may help explain the New York pols’ obliviousness, though like Becerra these Democrats seem to think stopping fraud is a waste of taxpayer money. The Post’s Chadwick Moore uncovered a trail of campaign contributions to Hochul and other pols from owners of some Flushing’s biggest Social Adult Day-Care businesses — centers that were empty of clients when our reporters visited (though none yet stands accused of wrongdoing). In 2022, Hochul’s campaign took in $55,000 from adult day-care operators who billed Medicaid more than $40 million since 2018.......
2. For Today’s Democrats, Fraud Is A Feature, Not A Bug –One of the unanswered questions raised by Minnesota’s massive welfare scandal is how it could have gone on so long, given its scale and the fact that alarm bells had been clanging for years. The New York Times provided the answer, if inadvertently, when it quoted a former fraud investigator in the state attorney general’s office, who said that “There is a perception that forcefully tackling this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting bloc” for Democrats. That is it in a nutshell when it comes to government waste, fraud, and abuse......

Another Italian Bureaucrat Joins the Hall of Fame

November 1, 2023 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

In 2014, I wrote about the Italian bureaucrat who worked only 15 days over a nine-year period.

 

Earlier this year, I wrote about the more industrious (relatively speaking, of course) Italian bureaucrat who worked four years over a 24-year period.

Both of these stellar public servants are now in my Bureaucrat Hall of Fame, which is an honor reserved for government employees who “have gone above and beyond the call of duty” to live “fat and happy at our expense.”

Today, we’re going to add another Italian to the Hall of Fame, meaning that Italy will be the first foreign nation with three representatives.

Congratulations to that nation’s lucky taxpayers!

Our recipient is Alberto Muraglia, who first became famous years ago for punching a time clock in his underwear and then heading home.

That’s remarkable, but not enough to become a member of the Hall of Fame. What makes Alberto special is that he then won two legal cases that confirmed his right to be a slacker.

I’m not joking. Here are some excerpts from a report in the U.K.-based Times.

Alberto Muraglia, 61, a police officer in Sanremo in northern Italy, became a symbol of Italy’s stereotypical skiving public servants in 2015 when he was caught in a corruption inquiry. After installing hidden cameras, investigators filmed him descending the steps from his service flat above his office in his Y-fronts and a T-shirt, clocking in, then returning home. …the police officer became an emblem of Italy’s battle against what it calls fannulloni, or good-for-nothing workers in council offices and government departments who are rarely at their desks. …But when Muraglia was sacked, a court acquitted him in 2020 of the charge of defrauding the state of public funds, ruling that getting dressed in the morning is part and parcel of an employee’s official duties. …However, the town of Sanremo refused to give him his job back, prompting Muraglia to go back to court, where he won again this week. A judge ruled he should not only be re-employed but should receive back pay of €250,000, dating back to his sacking.

Way to go, Alberto!

Stories like this, as well as the many examples form the U.S. and other countries, should remind us that governments waste money wantonly and do not deserve even a single penny of additional tax revenue.

Especially since more revenue would simply encourage politicians to further increase the spending burden, meaning even more debt.

 

Plenty of Fat and Waste to Cut at the United Nations, Part II

May 8, 2022 by Dan Mitchell

Compared to international bureaucracies such as the IMF and OECD, the United Nations has very little power to impose bad policy. But that does not mean it should be immune from criticism. There’s an anti-market ideology at the UN and I have specifically condemned the bureaucrats for sloppy and misguided work on taxes (here and here), poverty (here and here), and guns (here and here). 

Needless to say, there’s also a lot of waste and corruption at the UN.

I wrote about that topic back in 2017, so let’s take a follow-up look at how our tax money is being spent.

Let’s start with a just-released report in the New York Times. Written by David Fahrenthold and Farnaz Fassihi, it is a depressing snapshot of how money is squandered by insiders at the bureaucracy.

At the United Nations, two officials had a problem. The little-known agency they ran found itself with an extra $61 million, and they didn’t know what to do with it. Then they met a man at a party. Now, they have $25 million less. …experienced diplomats entrusted tens of millions of dollars…to a British businessman after meeting him at the party. They also gave his daughter $3 million to produce a pop song, a video game and a website promoting awareness of environmental threats… Things did not go well. …U.N. auditors said the man’s businesses defaulted on more than $22 million in loans — all money meant to aid the developing world…diplomats and former U.N. officials say the tale also demonstrates what critics say is a serious problem with the U.N.: a culture of impunity among some top leaders, who wield huge budgets with little outside oversight. …The top official at the Office for Project Services, Grete Faremo of Norway, remains in her post.

Some of the previous scandals at the UN have involved more than money.

Kathryn Snowdon’s 2018 report in the Huffington Post is very disturbing.

Charity workers from 15 international aid organisations have been implicated in a sex-for-food scandal at refugee camps in west Africa, according to a new leaked report… The 84-page document…identified more than 40 aid organisations “whose workers are alleged to be in sexually exploitative relationships with refugee children”. …Researchers spoke to 1,500 people, and said claims against 67 people were passed to senior UNHCR officials, but…none were prosecuted.

Some readers may wonder if the UN’s failures are the result of inadequate funding.

Hardly. As explained in National Review by Brett Schaefer, the bureaucracy is adept at playing games to ensure it always has plenty of cash.

Between 1960 and 2016, there have only been two times when an initially approved U.N. regular budget was lower than the preceding budget. …the U.N. General Assembly approved a $285 million (5 percent) cut in the two-year regular UN budget for 2018-2019, U.N. watchers took notice, but cautioned that…the U.N. adjusts its two-year budget at the mid-point to account for new expenditures and expenses. …Not only did the “cut” announced by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations…disappear, but the regular budget is actually $130 million higher than the final budget for 2016-2017. …this outcome is typical. …In 2012, the Obama administration bragged that the agreed-upon budget was “the first U.N. regular budget since 1998 – and only the second in the last 50 years – that has gone down in comparison to the previous budget’s actual expense.” The 2012 budget, however, also ended up being significantly higher than the initial budget after mid-biennium additions.

Here’s a chart from the article showing overall spending on the left axis, along with the additional spending that sneaks in during the mid-point of the budget cycle.

Brett explains there is a tiny bit of good news.

…the U.N. regular budget will shift to an annual budget starting in 2020. …This change will help, but will not cure the fundamental problem.

I confess, by the way, that I have no idea if that change actually happened.

But I feel confident in predicting that the UN’s budget has gone up rather than down.

Last but not least, even Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations concedes the United Nations has a dubious track record. Here are some passages from his 2020 article published by Project Syndicate.

The United Nations has fallen far short of its goals to “maintain international peace and security,” “develop friendly relations among nations’’ and “achieve international cooperation in solving international problems.” …The UN Security Council, the most important component of the UN system, has made itself largely irrelevant. …The organization’s own shortcomings haven’t helped: a spoils system that puts too many people in important positions for reasons other than competence, lack of accountability, and hypocrisy (such as when countries that ignore human rights sit on a UN body meant to uphold them).

I’ll close with the observation that I’ve met plenty of nice and sincere people when participating in programs at the United Nations.

But the understanding of economic policy at the UN is utterly abysmal. Until and unless that statist mindset is eliminated, giving more money to the bureaucracy would be rewarding the pursuit of bad policy.

P.S. Maybe international bureaucrats would have a better understanding of economic policy if they weren’t exempt from the income tax.

P.P.S. The United Nations almost surely wastes the talents of some very capable people.