by WorldTribune Staff, January 1, 2025 Real World News
Individuals who stole funds in the initial round of Covid relief likely won't be brought to justice because the five-year statute of limitations on unemployment fraud cases will expire in March 2025.
"The first fraudsters of the COVID-19 pandemic are about to get away with their crimes," Stephen Dinan wrote for The Washington Times on Dec. 30.
Some $300 billion in Covid relief payments are believed to have been stolen. Of that, just $1.2 billion in unemployment fraud has been recovered, according to the Government Accountability Office.
A Republican bill to double the unemployment fraud statute of limitations cleared the House in 2023, but a compromise with the Democrat-controlled Senate hasn’t been reached.
“Making the government more efficient isn’t a partisan issue — it’s an American issue,” Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford said. “Loopholes in the law let fraudsters get away with billions in Covid recovery and Unemployment Insurance payouts while forcing taxpayers to foot the bill.”
Without an extension of the statute of limitations, the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, which polices the Covid relief loans program, will shut down operations on March 28, five years after it was established.
About 70% of balloon loan payments are due after that date. The inspector general said the payments already due have shown an “alarming rate of defaults.”
Even if a state deems an unemployment case is likely fraud, existing law requires payments to be restarted within two weeks if the claimant appeals. The state can’t hold a hearing before the deadline.
Lankford has introduced legislation to eliminate that automatic payout restoration.
Jordan Burris, who served as a senior technology official in the federal government and is now a vice president at the fraud-fighting company Socure, told The Washington Times that the fraud fiasco underscores a bigger problem with government spending: The feds are too intent on paying out cash than trying to track down and reclaim misspent money.
“Our mindset needs to shift from going after and getting back money we’ve already lost,” Burris said. “Our efforts need to go toward prevention.”
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