| Something Everyone Should Be Concerned About First, COVID Fraud The Democrats would like everyone to believe they are on the side of workers and small businesses. It’s not true. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, no Democrat received a rating higher than 50% when NFIB (the association that looks after small business interests) scored their votes. And now, after the passage of Amendment 1, businesses and alll taxpayers can expect to pay more – that’s not pro-worker or pro-business.. On the worker side, Democrats protect only government workers – at all costs. Here’s the latest evidence of that. It is more likely than not that employers will have to contribute more to unemployment taxes because the state of Illinois has failed to fully pay back its remaining loan for unemployment expenses to the federal government. Not only will employers incur more costs, but so will taxpayers. The interest on the loan has already cost tens of millions of dollars, and that cost will continue. This isn’t the first time that Illinois has fallen into indebtedness to the federal government for this expense; it also owed the feds money for years following the 2008-09 recession. This time the state borrowed $4.5 billion to pay out unemployment claims related to the COVID lockdowns. Illinois could have paid the entire loan back when it received $8.1 billion in COVID funds that were fungible. Instead, the state only paid back initially $2.7 billion of the debt, and then in September 2022, it made another payment of $450 million. It still owes about $1.3 billion. Read more here. Here’s the rub – much of the debt incurred went to fraudsters. COVID-related unemployment fraud in Illinois is estimated at $2 billion! There were almost ZERO controls when the money was flowing during COVID. This ineptness in Illinois isn’t unique. California unemployment fraud was estimated at $11 billion. And then there is this article that estimates the total unemployment fraud at $163 billion. What other fraud is now being investigated? From the NBC article, we learn there’s a lot of fraud in every program related to COVID relief. “They came into their riches by participating in what experts say is the theft of as much as $80 billion — or about 10 percent — of the $800 billion handed out in a Covid relief plan known as the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. That’s on top of the $90 billion to $400 billion believed to have been stolen from the $900 billion Covid unemployment relief program — at least half taken by international fraudsters — as NBC News reported last year. And another $80 billion potentially pilfered from a separate Covid disaster relief program.” Then there are the millions of dollars that were sent to prisoners in the Biden COVID relief plan.An amendment filed by Republican senators would have denied the payments to incarcerated people, but it was defeated by the entire Democratic caucus in a 49-50 vote along party lines. “Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the upper chamber, argued in a speech on the Senate floor that adopting the amendment would harm the family members of inmates who needed the money.” Here’s the other part of the “fraud” – the inflation we are seeing is the result of the trillions of new money circulating in the economy. Everyone is paying for the underlying poorly designed and executed programs. The economic lockdowns were the most significant economic policy mistake in recent history in this country. To ensure this never happens again, everyone should read this Imprimis commentary by Jeffrey A. Tucker: The Economic Disaster of the Pandemic Response | Imprimis (hillsdale.edu) And the first order of government by newly elected officials must be to tighten up systems to ensure against any future fraud and to fully prosecute those who committed fraud. Fraud is theft. Taxpayer fraud cannot just be brushed aside, it is demoralizing to everyone else who plays by the rules |
| Articles on COVID-19 fraudsters.Illinois AG announces unemployment and COVID loan fraud cases | Illinois | thecentersquare.comSoCal couple convicted of stealing nearly $20 million in COVID-19 fraud extradited to LA from Montenegro – CBS Los Angeles (cbsnews.com)Ringleaders in massive COVID fraud extradited to US – ABC News (go.com)Recidivist Fraudster Convicted At Trial Of Over $10 Million COVID-19 Loan Fraud Scheme | USAO-SDNY | Department of JusticeJury Convicts State Lawmaker of COVID-19 Fraud Scheme at Springfield Health Care Charity | USAO-WDMO | Department of JusticeSecond, Investor Fraud These two incidents give me no confidence in the supposedly sophisticated investors and the bureaucrats that are supposed to protect the less sophisticated from fraud. No one was doing their job. Apparently, we have learned nothing since 2008, when similar schemes led to the housing meltdown and the 2008 economic crisis. Anyone who invested with Sam Bankman Fried deserves to lose it all. And the Politicians who took campaign cash from him need to return it in full! I remember the media coming to me, insisting that I return a small donation from a man accused of going into the Capitol on January 6th. I returned it immediately, as I believed at the time it was the right thing to do. He lost his job, and he probably could use the money. By the way, if first impressions are so important in a business relationship especially, why wouldn’t anyone triple-check what this guy was doing?  Good Grief!And then there is the other millennial, Elizabeth Holmes, who took investors for a ride. She’s paying for it now with 11 years in jail and restitution of $804 million. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud (nypost.com) Again, where were the SEC investigators? Where were caution and common sense? I imagine some of the people who invested with Holmes were otherwise savvy business people. The old adage should be heeded: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” |
