Half of all Covid Unemployment Stolen

Timothy Birdnow

Half of all the money earmarked for the unemployed earmarked for Covid relief was stolen - and most of it by foreign actors.

That was $400 BILLION DOLLARS of taxpayer money stolen.

Unemployment fraud surged during the coronavirus pandemic, with billions of dollars likely ending up in the hands of foreign crime syndicates based in China, Russia and other countries, experts say.

As much as $400 billion in unemployment benefits may have been fraudulent, according to one estimate by ID.me, FOX Business confirmed. That amounts to about 50% of unemployment money, according to the company, which uses facial recognition software to verify identities.

The news was first reported by Axios.

"Fraud is being perpetrated by domestic and foreign actors," Blake Hall, CEO and founder of ID.ME, told FOX Business. "We are successfully disrupting attempted fraud from international organized crime rings, including Russia, China, Nigeria and Ghana, as well as U.S. street gangs."

Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solution, suggested the bulk of the money – about $250 billion – went to international criminal groups, most of which are backed by the state. The money is essentially being used as their slush fund for "nefarious purposes," such as terrorism, illegal drugs and child trafficking, Talcove said.

The criminals have been able to access the money by stealing personal information and using it to impersonate claimants or buying it on the dark web. The groups also use an army of internet thieves to submit fraudulent claims. States, which administer the aid, may be prepared to combat fraud from individuals who are trying double-dip or cash in on benefits they don't need, but not international criminals using the dark web to exploit the system.

And yet Joe Biden wants to double down on this.

My brother had his stolen, I might add. He never received it and when he called about it they said he had cashed it.

I wonder how much of that stolen loot will wind up in the coffers of the Democratic Party?

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:45 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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