- Federal inspectors general determined that the government lost at least $276 billion in taxpayer money that was designated as “COVID-19 relief funding.”
- The funds were lost due to “fraud” and “waste,” according to cumulative estimates from the inspectors general of the Labor Department, Treasury Department, and Small Business Administration.
- Larry Turner, inspector general for the Labor Department, estimated that $76 billion slated for “unemployment insurance” was deployed via fraudulent claims. He described the $76 billion fraud assessment as “on the low end” because it did not include an analysis of money deployed via the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program established in 2020.
