October 06, 2022
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Judicial Watch
Amid the rampant fraud and corruption in the government’s massive COVID-19 relief cash giveaway, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees have been charged with stealing over a million dollars from pandemic relief programs to buy luxury goods, fancy cars, and travel. Five current or former employees from the feared tax agency easily withdrew the money by filing several false loan applications with two of the federal stimulus programs— Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL)—launched under the monstrous Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed by Congress to provide over $2 trillion in “fast and direct economic aid” to Americans negatively impacted by the pandemic.
Not surprisingly, CARES is rife with fraud and corruption and the IRS employee scandal is simply the latest of countless examples. How bad is the problem? Last year the Department of Justice (DOJ) created a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to “enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.” The special unit has been quite busy prosecuting scams, false statements, and money laundering related to the multi trillion-dollar CARES Act. So far, criminal charges have been filed against more than 1,000 defendants and the loss of public funds exceeds $1.1 billion,…
