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Agency official says fraud "is a dual victim crime," cites $230 billion identified by task force
Summary
An agency official described fraud as harming both taxpayers and program beneficiaries and said the fraud task force has identified about $230 billion in alleged fraud since its creation, citing coordination with DOJ and named partners.
An agency official said Thursday that fraud "is really a dual victim crime," arguing that stolen public funds harm both taxpayers and the people who rely on public programs.
The official cited prosecutions with the Department of Justice and said the government's fraud task force has produced measurable results: "we have been able to identify $230,000,000,000 of fraud just since the fraud task force was set up," the agency official said, adding that the figure reflects work done "working with Andrew Ferguson and with with Steve Miller." The speaker framed the misconduct as enriching lawbreakers while diminishing services for program beneficiaries.
The remarks used Medicaid support for new mothers and infants as an example of the secondary harms of fraud. The agency official said some cases involved providers who "not provided an ounce of service to a new mom or a young baby, and enriched themselves by literally taking money from the medical care of newborn infants." The speaker called the conduct "despicable" and said the problem had been permitted to continue "for too long" in the United States.
The official did not provide additional detail in the transcript about how the $230 billion figure was calculated, the period it covers beyond "since the fraud task force was set up," or the specific cases referenced; those details were not specified in the remarks.
