COVID con, part 2: How billions in pandemic relief funds went to everything but pandemic relief
Federal money meant to combat COVID-19 instead spent on pension bailouts, critical race theory programs, cash grants to illegal immigrants.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/...aign=newsletter
By Aaron Kliegman and Mary Lou Lang
Updated: January 17, 2022 - 10:51pm

Read part 1 of our COVID con series to see how lax government oversight of COVID-19 relief funds allowed fraudsters to take advantage of the pandemic and rake in cash as small businesses failed.

For the past two years, states and the federal government have spent billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds on a wide range of policy programs unrelated to the pandemic, according to a review conducted by Just the News.

The review found that, in numerous cases across the country, local, state, and federal officials used pandemic relief to fund other, often politically contentious spending priorities, such as teacher pay raises and cash grants for illegal immigrants.

One of the most prominent examples came at the federal level, where lawmakers attempted to bail out union pension plans facing possible insolvency.

In March, Democrats included in President Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was meant to help the country recover from the health and economic effects of COVID-19, about $86 billion to save private unions' multiemployer retirement funds. The largest of these is the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

COVID con, part 1: How the pandemic became a gold mine for fraudsters
Lax government oversight of billions in COVID-19 relief funds led to vast criminal fraud.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/w...mine-fraudsters
By Aaron Kliegman and Mary Lou Lang
Updated: January 13, 2022 - 11:31pm


Both state and federal government agencies have facilitated massive criminal fraud over the past two years by paying out billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds to fraudsters who gamed the system.

Since COVID-19 hit the U.S. in early 2020, the federal government has created several initiatives to combat the devastating economic fallout of the pandemic. Due to lax oversight by several agencies at both the state and federal level, however, billions meant for alleviating Americans' economic distress instead went to individuals who defrauded the government programs.

Much of the fraudulent activity occurred through the Small Business Administration (SBA), which is charged with overseeing several COVID-19 relief programs, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL).