White House launches new fraud tracking website to tout efforts
by Kerry Picket · The Washington TimesThe White House on Thursday launched a new website to track every action the administration has taken to crack down on federal fraud and the efforts to recover taxpayer money from criminal networks.
Known as Fraud.gov, the website created by the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud said it has uncovered nearly $230 billion in fraud, stopped $56 billion in fraudulent payments that would have gone into the pockets of criminals, enforced more than $55 billion through indictments, settlements, and civil penalties and secured hundreds of indictments and convictions.
“The Trump administration will not rest until every scheme is exposed, every recoverable dollar is returned to the American people, and public trust in is restored,” the White House said.
“Under President Trump and Vice President Vance, the era of unchecked fraud is over.”
The White House listed 50 actions that the task force, headed by Vice President J.D. Vance, has taken since its launch early in the year, starting with halting nearly $260 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota over allegations of rampant fraud and demanding full cooperation with federal investigators.
Other administration actions include charging 11 individuals in a major real estate and loan fraud ring targeting elderly Americans in California on March 19, and suspending hundreds of additional high-risk hospice and home health providers across California on April 2.
The administration also uncovered $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts and immediately launched a sweeping investigation on April 8, and referred 562,000 fraudulent or delinquent pandemic-era loans totaling $22 billion for aggressive collection on April 24.
Minnesota was an early and recent target for the administration to crack down on fraud schemes.
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On June 8, Mr. Vance ultimately referred Gov. Tim Walz, and state Attorney General Keith Ellison, both Democrats, to the Department of Justice’s Fraud Division for criminal investigation over allegations of negligence and complicity.
The Trump administration also captured a Minnesota fugitive in Somalia facing charges related to orchestrating the massive Feeding Our Future fraud scheme on June 27.
Most recently, on Aug. 4, the Department of Justice announced criminal charges against 19 defendants involved in a fraudulent home healthcare scheme targeting Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program.
On the same day, the administration announced a total of 1,076 hospices have been removed from the Medicare program in California alone due to fraud.
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Kerry Picket
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