The Scam of The Century!

[@PBoyle]

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[@seanys]

I can’t help wonder if the summaries are human or AI created.

[@robertagren9360]

The best part is that the rest of the world inlcuding Mexico is going to pay. US just blame on someone else. If it's not Russia it's Ukraine.

[@supertuscans9512]

Presumably you’re aware that you’ve got quite a wide choice of things to watch on YT? At a guess I’d say over 50 million.

[@petersuvara]

10% that’s about the same rate as credit card fraud…

[@Nickle314]

Peanuts compared to the welfare state pension frauds.

[@beccangavin]

My brother and his wife did fraudulent unemployment claims. They used the money they scammed to buy a new house. My friends husband lost his job when his boss took money from the government then closed his business and also bought a new house. They definitely needed better restrictions to prevent scams.

[@rorythomson3439]

Pathetic people.

[@tradergurlnancy1551]

And did you report the fraud?! Just because he's family doesn't justify his getting away with this!☹️

[@nuance9000]

And... My wife was denied unemployment. For the same job I received unemployment for, and got laid off for the same reason 😮

[@kylewatson5133]

Government needs to be voluntarily funded so that if people don't want to give a scam institution money, they don't have to. The government should not be handing out money or taking money by force.

[@fyt54321]

Any number of podcasters invented large imaginary staff teams and claims tens of thousands up to hundreds of thousands of loans ended up forgiven. All fraud, not based in any existing, established real staffing or expenses. Just imagine what you wish were real then make huge claims based on that invented reality. Disgusting.

[@swingingvoter4309]

As an Australian, I am glad you briefly mentioned the Australian bushfires being used as a opportunity to scam. Both in Australia and internationally, there were lots of organisations and “gofundme’s” etc seeking money. I was disgusted, and was pretty sure they were mostly scams, although it seemed rude to say so at the time. I could say a lot more on this topic.

[@rezamotori5709]

I bet paul pluta from Brisbane did his share of scamming too!

[@tobybrown1179]

We had fire close by here in Australia where I live that started out in national parks and destroyed 100’s of houses and only a couple of life luckily as come through with intense speed in the middle of the night. I had heard a few went out to the national park and where the fire started was almost a straight line from where the burning had come from, nothing in nature is a straight line

[@menjolno]

If i was one, I would buy the plot of land after the fire and pretend stuff

[@Gumardee_coins_and_banknotes]

The Bus crash that killed 10 people had fake charities popping up. Some people should be stopped from stealing oxygen.

[@OG_McLovin]

Pandemic of a respiratory virus and pandemic of scammers taking advantage of it all. It's both reassuring and super depressing to realize that a-holes exist in every nation and city on Earth.

[@samroot]

I live in Miami which is pretty much the epicenter of scams in the US. During COVID they sold out of boats, luxury items, and supercars. Apparently crime does pay and pay very very well.

[@alexlopez5800]

Till they sweep the rug from under you...

[@onlyeyeno]

​@@alexlopez5800 ?? Who does what ?? And why ?? Best regards

[@alexlopez5800]

@@onlyeyeno 😂 Gl

[@patienceobongo]

Ask Congress

[@onlyeyeno]

@@alexlopez5800 I've heard of people that "swept things under the rug"... And that "people have had the rug pulled from under their feet" But NEVER that "someone swept the rug from under You"... But apparently it's funny so I guess it might be worth waiting for ;) Best regards.

[@FuttBukkr]

The most frustrating part about this is the people/businesses/entrepreneurs/subcontractors who legitimately needed assistance and didn’t apply bc they were worried about doing something incorrect/get in trouble bc there was such a lack of clarity 🙋‍♂️

[@SabzKhumalo]

It's always the chances who get the biggest fish. Sometimes honest people get left behind

[@dianapennepacker6854]

There are so many resources online to help you for free. That is partially on them. I was dying, and I too missed out on aid. Anyway people always talk about the bad effects of the stimulus. They never talk about what it would have been like without them. People also confuse the effects of global instability with all the insane conflicts with Russia, Houthis, and even Israel has an effect. All causing prices to go up, to the stimulus. (Especially Bidens).

[@hammer-fn7gm]

I still get scam calls and emails telling me I can get up to $26,000 per employee for my business as compensation for the inconvenience during the pandemic. They say they will handle all of the paperwork and the check will be made to me.

[@ignacio8597]

Some are real and they take a percentage of it for filing. But I would use a lawyer before someone cold calling you.

[@franciscodanconia4324]

Those companies are even advertising on MSM like Bloomberg.

[@ohioplayer-bl9em]

you should do it.. everyone else did. im going to research how I can get my cut. im sure Amazon, google, Microsoft, Pfizer and the rest of the trillion dollar companies did.. if everyone except you is doing it then you put yourself in a disadvantage and thats not fair.

[@ldeadeyesl]

​@@ohioplayer-bl9em You had to actually show a major impairment in the business during covid vs the previous year. That's why there is still so much money left, so few businesses were negatively impacted by covid due to the trillions in handouts.

[@tmcthree]

I'm sad, but honestly I don't know if it's because of the state of humanity or that I didn't manage get any of the money.

[@233kosta]

Yes.

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

😂

[@casualmining7290]

Its a blessing, they coming after me as individual, and my claim was absolutely valid & nothing was misrepresented.

[@tmcthree]

@@casualmining7290 That sounds grim. Sorry to hear it.

[@ramjamflimflam]

I can say from my experience, at 55yrs old with nothing in any type of retirement account, if this Ponzi scheme collapses in the next 5 yrs I’ll be better off. What I can produce going forward from this point on will be out of this corrupted, immoral system. Convert this fiat garbage to gold and silver now. Any amount you can afford.

[@Croptopkin]

When you make fraud less risky and pay more than honest work, this is the natural conclusion. We have created a world where the accumulation of capital is placed above morality, it's not surprising.

[@xraceboyex]

And people like Pat here will talk about this fraud unironically while never mentioning that our entire monetary system fundamentally runs on fraud as a policy. What a joke. Bet you this guy commits worse levels of fraud on a daily basis at his day job

[@tommyfanzfloppydisk]

agree 100%. it won't matter the context, pandemic or whatever, this is the kind of society we crafted.

[@dnomyarnostaw]

Sp, exactly WHEN was the World NOT based on fraud and dishonesty ??? This should be interesting 🤔

[@iPeeOnBabies]

FUk u IDOT MAK moar MONY

[@mesiroy1234]

Thats about to be rovan to have moeny🤙 not emotion🎉🎉 Fuck the poor🎉🎉

[@julesvanlaar]

When I was young I heard a story from my dad (a farmer) that there was a drought in the 1970s, my dad used the government support to buy fodder for the livestock (and kept the receipts) while other farmers had bought themselves a new car or tractor from the money but they had to pay back all the support while my dad never had to pay anything back.

[@Sir_Lagg_A_Lot]

When I first heard about the size of the stimulus, I joked to my friends that the government would need an army of accountants to keep track of where the money was going, because people would try to steal it.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

People are dumb. They had to make it easy for the good hard working citizens that don't have it in them for government shenanigans. Remember questioning the stimulus, and all the ramifications. Then someone said, "What would have happened without it?" And to be honest that was a good point. I think overall it did good.

[@BangBangBang.]

I was locked up for 52 days in county jail for WEED this year from February to April. While locked up, the county jail was telling people who haven't filed for benefits or were unaware they qualified for them to file including providing instruction to them about it'll come to them in jail. What these inmates don't know is if the $1200 came to the jail, its on their account and subject to deductions by the jail such as the $2/day sustenance fee. The county jail rarely has people pay back unless they take the money on your account when you're released. I had ~$300 on my account when I was released thinking I'd get a check which I was going to use for a medical marijuana card so I wouldn't have another county jail visit later on. Nope, county jail took that money and said I owed an additional $55 for medical visits/medication so I paid that crap off. 99% of people released have no money on their account or used it all up (I debated this) so they often owe money upon release and are subject to a city lien on them. Or if they come back, the county jail will take a percentage of the money you have on you to pay off the lien/owed money. I unfortunately had $200 cash on me and the county jail immediately took $20 from me as part of an intake/processing fee. Local jails are part of the scheme also. Giving out free money just to be able to take it back.

[@rockmusicman21]

That is disgraceful

[@spontaneousbootay]

Meanwhile I got literally nothing the whole time even when I didn't work. A friend told me about a guy that he knew who had homeless people sign papers and he processed them for the money.

[@jeffshackleford3152]

You know, you can get like 30% of the fraud money if you report it and they convict. To be clear, I am not for snitching at all, but in this case, I am certainly for it because I saw some good honest people get wiped out, while dishonest people got rewarded. I think it is time we start getting those dishonest people what they deserve.

[@lipsontajgordongrunk4328]

That’s surprising seeing as most states had expanded unemployment offerings during the peak of COVID.

[@Chris-ey8zf]

@@lipsontajgordongrunk4328 You had to have been unemployed due to the pandemic, not before. Those who were unemployed for whatever reason before COVID shutdowns hit and could never find a job afterword due to no one hiring, were just SOL.

[@java4653]

​@@lipsontajgordongrunk4328 This is not really true. Welfare was already a short term program under Clinton anyways. Anyone complaining about welfare had to ignore that it was already reformed by a Democrat. But the truth doesn't get Republican crooks elected.

[@thelitmedallion]

So many people got "help" that didn't need it and others were left holding the bag.......

[@ethanallenhawley1052]

Regarding your discussion at 10:50, the banks collecting the applications received a kickback for processing applications. The banks were incentivized to accept the frauds.

[@xraceboyex]

The govt giving out any money to begin with is the biggest fraud here. Prosecute Yellen and Powell

[@fredsmith2277]

a pile of money will attract scammers from miles around !!!

[@wtywatoad]

It’s disgusting that multi-millionaires, such as Mark Wahlberg, and Robert DiNero got PPP loans for their business. Even the 80’s band, The Psychedelic Furs got a PPP loan.

[@FireStormOOO_]

That that would happen follows rather obviously from making it income-disruption based rather than wealth based. There were requirements that the money went to paychecks for employees. It was literally paying businesses to avoid layoffs. Not sure what you're actually on about, it largely worked.

[@supertuscans9512]

To be fair, I would guess that both Walberg and De Niro have paid more than a chunk of tax in their time.

[@dancahill9585]

The Catholic Church got $4 Billion in loans despite not paying taxes.

[@logicxhardcorex]

@@supertuscans9512ur dumb if you think rich people dont find ways to pay as little as possible in tax bootlicker

[@jont2576]

​​@@supertuscans9512 poor them....if u ask me i would be glad to have the opportunity to pay millions in tax too.

[@willh1970]

As someone who has worked in humanitarian/emergency projects for years I have to say that I did tell everyone what was going to happen. I said it before it happened, I said it when it was happening and I also said back in Feb/March 2020 that a day of reckoning would come. Experience in my specific field is something that is just not valued. So here we are. By the way, there's another huge refugee crisis building up in Syria. But not that anyone is interested in what I have to say, so I'll keep my head down and kick on with my own work. Have a nice day folks.

[@markusgorelli5278]

Geez guy, don"t waste comment space hinting at things. This might be the only arena with the least policing that one can get the word out under the radar.

[@Chris-ey8zf]

It didn't take a genius knowing what would happen when Trump/Congress refused to allow any oversight whatsoever with the PPP loans. There's a long list of politicians who took out PPP loans in the hundreds of thousands to million dollar range that never owned a business or had a single employee. It's public knowledge. None of them will ever face any consequences.

[@David-ud9ju]

So more people coming to developed countries to live on our tax money while committing crime and not making any poisitive contribution to the economy? Keep them in Syria.

[@pixelsafoison]

All of this makes me shudder as a nursing student ... Because here in Belgium we're getting more and more cases of covid, and we already struggle with being supplied the necessary equipment. For instance we re-use FFP2 masks that we keep in a box just because there's not enough of them to just throw them away. You never know what kind of overgarnment you're going to wear because it depends on which department the hospital has pillaged, sometimes yellow, sometimes blue. Losing precious time by having to fully desinfecting monitoring towers with hella-violent chemicals simply because we cannot have one per room or dedicate one to covid patients. We're really not ready for round 2, it would be a full collapse.

[@ThisFinalHandle]

And here was me stupidly burning through my Superannuation (401k) when I could have been living high on other peoples money.

[@doctoroctos]

The worst part is organizations rushing to spend unspent money any way possible instead of backing up and trying to correct.

[@rnp497]

Here in the UK, as you know, there have been questions about how the Government provided funds for PPE and almost anything else connected with the pandemic. I wonder if the amount of fraud equals or exceeds this.

[@davidzoller9617]

"They" said there was never so much Money made like in the plandemic.

[@piccalillipit9211]

In the UK the big one is the £38 BILLION on track and trace - you CAN NOT spend £38 billion on any one project in one year - its simply NOT possible. £38 billion will buy 5 Ford Class nuclear aircraft carriers - but it will take 10 years to build them. OR you can buy 2 of the 3 Georges Dam projects, that will take you 20 years. £38 billion is an UN SPENDABLE amount of money. The average cost globally for tracking apps was about £50 million The total covid corruption by the govt in the UK will exceed £100 billion - I promise you.

[@dean_l33]

I bet it easily exceed this. The whole pandemic was a mess start to finish and now even after it

[@saint-miscreant]

you also gotta factor in the amount of money and taxpayer hours they’ve probably spent ‘investigating’ the absolute clown show that was Partygate…

[@brahtrumpwonbigly7309]

I don't trust your average person to handle large sums of money, let alone government officials. If they aren't padding their own pockets they're inevitably blowing it on useless stuff or losing it to scammers.

[@EMSpdx]

The absolute wildness of it all! People were literally trading tips on Twitter on how to score loans and unemployment benefits that they did not qualify for- as people were dying.

[@jasonnugent963]

It's crazy to think about. I got hit hard early in the pandemic (March-April 2020,. I spent 38 days in Hospital. 16 of those days in ICU on a Ventilator fighting my way out of a coma). When I finally woke up, got off the Ventilator and started Rehab (still in a Hospital isolation ward). I was watching TV and it felt like I was waking up in a zombie-movie (Lockdowns, food-lines, etc).. Strange times we've (luckily) lived through.

[@akshaypatel518]

In the uk we lost 40-70 billion in PPE fraud. A d even though the gov knows exactly who defrauded them they refused to do anything about it. Rich helping the rich as always

[@franciscodanconia4324]

If they admitted there was fraud, they’d be admitting they were incompetent doing their jobs.

[@xraceboyex]

The govt giving out money is fraud to begin with lol. The whole program was fraud itself

[@himanshusingh5214]

PPE are not supposed to be this expensive.

[@akshaypatel518]

@himanshusingh5214 yes, well your not supposed to spend billions on whats essentially garbage. But thankfully the tories spent millions to burn this extra PPE

[@Juan_lauda]

That’s because it was the government that was committing the fraud

[@youperguy]

We really need to stop calling them PPP loans. Nobody had to pay them back. They were handouts.

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

oh NOES, not a HANDOUT! god forbid i genuinely wonder what the world would look like if either there had been no lockdown or if there had been a lockdown with zero plan for keeping people afloat who worked in suspended industries. i bet it would be far worse than the one where fraudsters got some free money from the government

[@phpn99]

This kind of fraud should be punished so harshly that would-be perpetrators would at least have a doubt.

[@en0n126]

Meanwhile, the most up-voted comment here is someone lamenting that they didn't get in on the free money. Whole lot of people these days trained to believe getting away with financial crimes is "being smart". They also believe when some people get busted for this that it's unfair and certain people are "being unfairly targeted" for reasons other than the fraud, and also that other people were not smart because they got caught and that "i wouldn't have got caught if it was me". A lot of brazen criminality made its way into social mindset.

[@lombardo141]

Well you have to understand that people naturally hate the government. Taxes, laws favoring the rich, so whatever leads them to get something back for free they will take it. But unfortunately the ones committing these crimes are people that don’t need the money in the first place.

[@jonahhekmatyar]

They'll never be serious to financial criminals, who else will fund "reelection campaigns" (bribes)

[@Chris-ey8zf]

@@en0n126 People are pissed they got screwed on things like student loans while millions of Americans fraudulently took billions in PPP loans that were completely forgiven, no questions asked. Every politician against student loan relief also received hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in PPP loans that were all forgiven. None of them had any real businesses or employees. The truth of the matter is that when the entire government is a scam, the only way to get ahead is to do the same. Trying to be moral in an immoral society doesn't work.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

@@lombardo141 "Well you have to understand that people naturally hate the government." Oh really? Then wtf is all this BULLSHIT I see about self-entitled veterans or people defending veterans getting angry about BULLSHIT like "stolen valor"? Military is part of the government. So, hating government means hating military.

[@victorfranca85]

Its almost as if disasters are, hmmm... DISASTROUS !

[@jimwells7778]

How much did the politicians secretly skim off the top?

[@mastpg]

...anything other than a grievance delusion?

[@Joe-ff1oh]

Billions

[@Bialy_1]

1% is a typical bribe cut but considering the scale and everything else i doubt that in this case it was less than 10%...

[@jal051]

That depends on how big their families are to receive subsidies and contracts.

[@robertnervoso771]

@Joe Campbell haha... Suuuuure

[@lipsontajgordongrunk4328]

The crazy thing is I believe the regular statute of limitations with the IRS is usually 6 years for an audit but the statute of limitations for fraud is indefinite. So in some case we could be seeing federal clawback well into the next decade over this PPP/EIDL/ERTC boogaloo. EDIT: made my initial comment before finishing the video. The 10 years change is for criminal charges and civil enforcement, and this now matches the 10 years limitation for tax debt collection.

[@Bialy_1]

They made it 10 years to catch all the small fry and in the same time give the big fry chance to come clean from it...

[@lipsontajgordongrunk4328]

@@Bialy_110 years for items specific to this program and it’s for criminal charges IIRC. If they find you committed fraud they can assess a civil penalty at any point in the indefinite future I’ve also heard that if you got certain relief payments in excess of $100k from programs like the ERTC that they are having individual agents review those files manually. This will be a interesting next few years especially with the 2024 election likely impacting how strongly this enforcement will follow through.

[@alwayshere6956]

And added around thirty thousand new IRS agents so you're definitely not gonna make it that long!

[@lipsontajgordongrunk4328]

@@alwayshere6956 I wouldn’t be so certain of that. I’m an enrolled agent and from what I’ve seen with my direct interactions with the IRS is they’re already a year behind on even the most menial things like basic level tax audits and mail. They absolutely by no means had the capacity to even perform their pre-existing functions in a timely manner before all of this emergency relief stuff. They will absolutely go after what is easiest for them to collect first but I wouldn’t be surprised if people don’t start getting assessed notices and penalties until well into the next 2-3 years for even the most basic levels of fraud/negligence.

[@sledgex9]

In my country any change to the statute of limitations for criminal cases affects only crimes made after the change. It is a constitutional (and maybe human rights treaty?) thing that criminal laws can't be retroactive. Doesn't the USA have something like that?

[@bipolarminddroppings]

Since the year 2000, if you asked basically any western government "what is the biggest threat to your nation?" They would have told you "a global pandemic". The UK and US governments produced multiple reports saying such and that we should have plans in place and ready to go. Imagine, if instead of ignoring those reports and doing nothing. Governments had put in place legislation for programs such as PPP or Furlough, and had policies ready to go, instead of having to make it all up on the fly...

[@jameskeefe1761]

You could instead put in a testing system where people could do a simple swab everyday which would be electronically processed, knowing who has the virus you can quarantine those, you can keep people safe and let life go on as normal.

[@markusgorelli5278]

@@jameskeefe1761 The swabs they had only tell you if you have genetic material in your snot. It doesn't tell you if you have an active infection.

[@xraceboyex]

And we still haven't had a pandemic since lol. We had a planned [financial pandemic]

[@cicaizrogace8054]

Scam within the scam.

[@nco_gets_it]

The fraud and waste understates the actual level of the problem. Nearly one third of the money was passed to states and counties where it was simply misspent or wasted. In addition, another quarter of the money likely went directly into federal agency overhead and costs.

[@soydansogukcesme470]

there is also another quarter of that money which went directly into the companies of the relatives which work for the state.. or high positions or key point positions.. ect..(nepotism)

[@beautifulblackbeauty8641]

Marjorie Taylor Green got a chunk of this $, to “save” her business. She now complains she now earns less $ money in congress than she did as a businesswoman. Is she smart enough to realize she confessed to swindling $ from the govt?😊

[@TheRealE.B.]

I live in Pennsylvania, and state politicians are floating dumb ideas about just giving money back to (certain groups of) taxpayers instead of investing it into infrastructure or something. And not, like, underprivileged groups of taxpayers. Just random stuff like "let's give everybody who drove on the Turnpike (toll road) this year a tax rebate!" and "Let's give parents who bought their 16-year-old a $50,000 pickup truck this year a tax rebate!"

[@C_R_O_M________]

As is always the case with bureaucracy.

[@Clone42]

Let's not stop there. There's no evidence that any of the spending or interventions were beneficial. It was 100% waste, or worse. I hope the crooks bought themselves something nice. The rest of us only got ongoing excess mortality and an incoherent narrative that ignores it.

[@DerekRawlings]

The takeaway from me in all of this is that so much of this fraud occurred because of insufficient government record keeping, or ability to adhere proper record keeping practices; it's a failure of bureaucratic infrastructure that people were able to make fraudulent claims (dead people, convicts, etc). The US (being a group of United States) is fairly poorly positioned to prevent these acts. Bad actors can simply cross state lines and act with relative anomynity due to (possibly justified) government information sharing protocols. I imagine that certain states were _disproportionately_ subject to fraud due to bad/archaic data handling protocols, and I hope but do not expect that those states will be held in some way accountable for how those practices enabled criminal activity. Yes, a lot of fraud took place (and no one likes that), but I can't help but think that a significant chunk could have been avoided if certain government agencies didn't enable it so easily.

[@jasonnugent963]

This. And speaking as someone who has worked in a small city gov for 15+ years,. the other squeeze of that is that Citizens (perhaps rightfully so) want "as much services as possible,,. for as low taxes as possible". There's a reason why the Gov is so inefficient and sloppy and poorly run. It's constantly understaffed and under-resourced. (especially on smaller local levels). As you mention, very few systems are "inter-state connected".. so all someone has to do is move state to state and keep re-doing their grift. I'm not sure how we fix any of that (unlikely given the USA is what,. the 5th largest country in the entire world). Technology does exist to improve and tighten scrutiny on various systems,. but the people in charge of those systems have to work hard every day to make smart ethical decisions (hard to do when so many around them are not).

[@Chris-ey8zf]

The failure was manufactured on purpose. Trump refused to allow any oversight at all with PPP loans. The fact that anyone could have seen that at the time and not realize immediately that this was a scam is beyond me.

[@conduit242]

Meanwhile every financial KZbinr was blaming “stimmie checks” for inflation last year 🙄

[@David-ud9ju]

That is what caused the inflation. Massive stimulus programs coupled with everywhere being shut resulted in everyone having loads of disposable income, which they all started spending after lockdown causing demand to exceed supply raising prices and causing inflation (along with supply chain issues from the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine).

[@dondatrader5609]

2020 - 2021 was the height of so many people I knew with no jobs, all of sudden pulling out 30-40k in cash

[@seraphin01]

corpse looter has been a thing since forever basically. We know that some people would do anything to get their hands on some goods so it's no surprise that this amount of money reeled in the worst humanity has to offer. And while govs could have/ should have done better, it's hard to blame them in the midst of something we haven't faced in modern history basically. what matters now is to get as much of the money back and to make those fraudster accountable, and considering the circumstances I wish they'd do like what UK tends to do: name and shame. this is more than just stealing some tax money, this is literally stealing from people dying or surviving, this can't go unpunished or just giving the money back at this point.

[@kingduckford]

The bigger problem is the actual direction of policy. When all of this was going on, there was a major banking crisis as well as the pandemic, and a lot of the direction of the policy wasn't so much personal relief or direct business relief per se, but rather the usual "prime the pump" or other cash flood the economy during hard times mentality types, many of which preferred greatly to push too much money into the system rather than be stingy with it. Economically, they were more concerned about getting as much cash into the economy as quickly as possible, and even the easiest of safeguards was probably seen by far too many as being just a little too slow in their ham fisted efforts. Why, even money given to fraudsters will end up in bank accounts, being spent, and even being recirculated as taxes when finally spent. They cared more about the fact money was actually flowing, and flowing quickly, then if the programs were being followed accurately. They cared more about bolstering the economy at the time, and not so much "entitlement' or who was "supposed" to get money. Many will go unpunished, as when there is enough offenders, prosecuting them all becomes difficult to impossible. The government will start to recollect some loans and get some money back. But, in the end, even with the current clean up, many would say the policy, despite massive fraud, was a success in their end goal.

[@xraceboyex]

How do you write all that and not even mention that the govt literally spends money that doesn't exist? Lol. It's hilarious to me that people are talking about fraud without acknowledging that our entire economy fundamentally runs on fraud as a base policy

[@aashaytambi3268]

I think people failed to understand this part. Because a total economic collapse could have happened without it. The few billion lost here and there, actually saved a few trillion, and made lives of everyone better. Aka the cost of doing business

[@willkrummeck]

yeah its for the greater good, but if the people who got the money were sintgy it would be bad since they would sit with the money and not help float the boat. its dificult since surely the same money could have gone to buying infrastructures and equipment for hospitals. where did these moneys end up.

[@juniorjames3256]

Well put sir

[@jhance11]

Very grateful you are highlighting this Patrick. It's easy to move on and forget. We shouldn't.

[@Chris-ey8zf]

We all should've taken out PPP loans to pay off our student loans.

[@drewcover2864]

OMG why didn't I think of that! Brilliantly clever like a fox. I could've been on Facebook cryin about shutdowns and my fake business then complain about SL forgiveness.... Honesty doesnt pay, just lie and act like a victim when caught

[@lilblackduc7312]

..If your college degree doesn't produce enough value for you to pay it off, it certainly doesn't have enough value for your neighbor to pay it off. "Dreams soon become nightmares when IRRESPONSIBLE borrowing becomes a way of life". 🤔🤔.

[@perfectallycromulent]

@@lilblackduc7312 if your neighbors can reimburse the depositors in bank failures thru things like FDIC insurance, they can also do similar things for any sort of financial risk. you just don't like that one.

[@Chris-ey8zf]

@@lilblackduc7312 Odd how almost every decent job in America outside of very specific union trades (which would instantly drop in pay if everyone moved to those jobs instead of college) requires a degree, yet almost every job that requires a degree in America doesn't pay enough to pay off the degree. It's almost as if blaming people who just want an education and a decent job isn't the right way to go about it.

[@lilblackduc7312]

@@perfectallycromulent You two girls just "Cry me a River". Lol 😰 😫 😩

[@tomcads1604]

The book Pandemic Inc. by David McSwane goes into great detail into many of those pandemic relief frauds. It's an excellent read

[@Viviko]

Thanks for the book recommendation.

[@sarmstrong7020]

It has like 50 pages on pandemic fraud and 250 on dumb political bullshit...

[@acarrillo8277]

Wow, just wow. Like I knew it was bad but damn. I was lucky and had an essential job and worked through the whole pandemic and never needed assistance, so I never went near any of these systems. This sounds like the whole thing was a trainwreck.

[@ashishpatel350]

government spending relating to corruption and fraud? IM SHOCKED

[@xraceboyex]

The govt spending itself is the fraud since '71 lol

[@nancya8262]

GREAT VIDEO!! I really enjoy your commentary and research. Excellent work, too bad it is just further proof of the "soul sickness" our society is crumbling under.

[@mblaber2000]

local restaurant owners allegedly pocketed lots of cash, and fired employees anyway.

[@BracaPhoto]

Can confirm - here in the 'hood there was an EXPLOSION of new entrepreneurs - I had friends with Waste Management companies- private security companies - Assisted Healthcare - And the weed man cashing covid relief checks for the community - BUSSILING TIMES i tell ya

[@mrmanoriginaltakes]

The government needs to provide an incentive for information concerning ppp fraudsters.

[@Yor_gamma_ix_bae]

So I realize Patrick is a small L libertarian economics type of guy. But I always appreciate that he doesn’t often insert his own opinion into videos. You could walk away from his videos having a pretty unbiased take away of financial events.

[@JaimeWarlock]

The corruption went both ways. Government agencies often refused to pay eligible people. They would make up bogus reasons, then make them wait over a year for a hearing. Once the hearing date arrived, they would retroactively change reasons for denial or require phone hearings for audio impaired at the last minute, then find against you for not being able to hear them at the hearing. This type of behavior makes people see the whole system as corrupt. The dishonest rewarded and the honest denied. It makes people cynical and disregard the rules the next time they see an opportunity.

[@jimjam6598]

Omg it's like some of us were saying this all along. And then we were called conspiracy theorists. What a huge surprise.

[@greebj]

the next thing that will be "discovered" was that the vaxes were approved based on junk dodgy science and the process wasn't independent where regulators "approved" therapeutic goods after first world governments had already raced each other to sign $billion contracts for those TGs

[@jasonnugent963]

There were plenty of news stories at the time regarding cons and grifters scamming these funds. There was plenty of legit proof ,. so I don't think it qualifies as a "conspiracy". Seemed to me that it became apparent pretty fast any one who wanted to "make a fast buck" could do so. (as sad as that observation is).

[@brunomanco7529]

This hapened everywhere. Even i received 250 per kid without needing it. And my company received 15000 without needing it because we are very frugal and so our company has no debt

[@robinp.6540]

Thank you for your always interesting observations served with a side of pithy humor. I watch your videos and am immediately drawn into another one and it is a pleasure.

[@CompelledFungus]

My only problem with fraud & corruption is that I'm not a part of it 😂

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

3:27 - Old enough to have used a punch card machine in the first computer programming class I took. Fortran, of course.

[@12nites]

Hey, I had to use FORTRAN for my PhD, don't feel so old

[@deph5183]

Never let a crisis go to waste at its peak.

[@Gilamang]

Amazed that anyone would suggest that as much as 90% of PPP fraud “loans” were used for legitimate purposes. That number is surely much lower. That we choose to flood liquidity into the country in such a poorly regulated manner shocks the conscience. And then we get to live with the follow-on inflationary effects.

[@Chris-ey8zf]

Don't worry. The same politicians who gave out those "loans" (and took them for themselves as well) and then completely forgave them are also the same ones who are against things like food stamps, student loan relief, and free school lunches for poor kids. They keep getting voted in with loud applause, so there are never any consequences.

[@positvelyexpectant1383]

During the pandemic my family and I were busy trying to keep alive, while folks were out scamming. It's fascinating hearing these stories now. Also a big one at the time were the 'sou sous' scams in the Caribbean. Would love a video on that Patrick.

[@1alayzzia]

Your work is truly awesome!

[@zogzog1063]

Hello from New Zealand. We had a similar program. I benefitted from the equivalent of this. My business suffered but the ease of which I obtained the benefit was so easy that I had the suspicion that there had to be freeloaders.

[@silvioschurig749]

I agree that some additional level of scrutiny would have been good. But it seems that way you substitute loss via fraud for administrative overheads - and given how politics in the us seems to favor private enterprise, no telling how much of hat overhead would just be blown up. So to me it seems 10% fraud loss versus low bureaucracy implementation might not be such a bad deal. Anyone looked into that?

[@jeffshackleford3152]

The scrutiny wasn't necessarily very hard to implement. Criss checking databases in today's age isn't the hardest thing to do. Crawling through the data may take a lot of computer power, but you can basically but as much computing power as you want for relatively cheap.

[@jkfecke]

@@jeffshackleford3152 You clearly don't know the type of systems the government is working with.

[@silvioschurig749]

@@jeffshackleford3152 Fully agree - there is always some 80/20 thing, so it seems a 20/80 solution could have been viable (do at least 20% of the possible checks and do those 20% "that don't cost much" - whatever that would mean). Instead 0/100 seems to have been implemented. But when you look at defense spending for example: There is always some flashy new system produced, marvel of technology that might even pull some people into its fascination who are more averse to the whole arms thing. Who wasn't fascinated the first time they heard of and saw pictures of the stealth fighter avoiding radar detection. Yet for each of those: how many projects cost hundreds of millions and (way) more and never deliver anything? Is for example the church of scientology, who don't pay their staffers anything, receiving millions in workers protection aid really a bigger scam?

[@jonathanj8303]

I think you have a point, but 'better scrutiny' isn't a high bar here. 5 figure sums of business support were given here (by local government officials) to the owners of newly founded companies that had never traded and were founded after the support scheme was extended. The rules here required, amongst other things, the business to have provable tradimg/employees for months years *prior* to covid. Sure, you can fake that, and the person checking might not smell a rat, but if receiving company registration date is after the start of the scheme and they get money, no checking was being done at all.

[@gbickell]

Patrick Boyle is prolific! Excellent analysis and very informative. Thank you.

[@cookies9494]

A minute of silence for the lost souls in the comments who thought this would be about bitcoin. Thank you.

[@georgelionon9050]

The bitcoin market cap is just below the total amount of money scammed. In reality bitcoin is just a small hiccup.

[@cookies9494]

@@georgelionon9050 study bitcoin.

[@dastrnad]

Lol. I’ll them 30 seconds.

[@cookies9494]

@@dastrnad haha yeah you are doing it right mate. Good luck.

[@Xetarine]

I wouldn't blame people somewhat for thinking if it was about USDT lel

[@matthewsnyder548]

it would have been smarter to just mail checks titled to "whom it may concern" only to USA addresses, to make sure foreign hackers werent stealing the money that was allocated for people who needed it

[@CainXVII]

We could try that one next time. Dave Gorman style, in windowed envelopes with the money showing. Who cares if a mailman takes some?

[@timogul]

Some people look at a situation and think "that's awful, the government should never have given out all that money in the first place." Other people look at all the good that the overwhelming majority of the funds brought about, and just blame the criminals for doing crimes.

[@Fighter05]

In California it was inevitable since the state made it available to undocumented workers as well. And I don't mean solely illegal immigrants. A lot of Californians said they had businesses like personal training, nanny, hair stylist, yoga instructor and the like where they had worked at say the homes of wealthy individuals; that the pandemic made them unable to work and therefore they qualified for the benefits. So a lot of unregistered businesses were able to apply for PPP aid as well as unemployment benefits. Its just impossible to track who is legit and who is not when you don't require proof of work or documentation of employment, No W-2 forms, 1099 filings for contractors or TINs, Taxpayer Identification Number were required. And since the state essentially opened up accounts on the applicants behalf with Bank of America I believe, KYC regulations were thrown out the window. So people who probably couldn't even open a checking account were able to get $50,000 dollar PPP grants given to them no questioned asked with bogus small business paperwork. The unemployment benefits don't really bother me, since it was only about $400ish dollars a week after tax which is pretty much impossible to survive on as the average rent for a studio is around $2,000 dollars a month. So most people who could work, had the skills to make more money, needed to work and did work; so a vast majority receiving unemployment were the bottom 10% and the most vulnerable economically. Some people probably did work under the table while receiving unemployment benefits but that happens all the time, Pandemic or not. And it allowed lots of Californians to still consume to some degree which was essential to keeping the businesses that were still open afloat. PPP fraud is a much larger issue in my opinion as the grants are substantially higher. There are a few good reads in things like the LA Times where some businesses received grants upwards of $1.4 million dollars to keep their employees working, and then later laid them off so they could receive unemployment benefits and the PPP grant money was pocketed by owners under false pretenses.

[@Pezzerd]

Honestly, Patrick, I legit think you have one of the best channels on KZbin. Top 5 for me. You’ve educated me and gave me further reading material which has only educated me further. Keep it up mate.

[@ArizonaAstraLLC]

Excellent video as always, Patrick. As a fund accountant, I like seeing fellow investment operations professionals discuss global markets, fiscal policy, etc.

[@waitaminute2015]

I forget the name of it, but you can look up who got $ and how much. 2 of my ex employers got money and were only closed for one month in Florida. None of this was shared to employee.

[@PBoyle]

Thanks to our growing list of Patreon Sponsors and Channel Members for supporting the channel. www.patreon.com/PatrickBoyleOnFinance : Paul Rohrbaugh, Marc De Mesel, Nate Stapleton,Timothy Baird, WIlam, Hernan Merino, Random Encounter, Nieuwsbrief Ikwil, Bee Positive Consulting, hyunjung Kim, John Cadena, Ian Tracey, Callum McLean, Oscar, Simon Pena, Ed, Erik Van Ekelenburg, David O'Connor, Pjotr Bekkering, Alex, Robert W Proudfoot, Robert Muller, Andre Michel, Ivan Iliev, Gopaljee Atulya, Mark Hooker, Artem Vasenin, P H, Sebastian, Michal Lacko, Peter Bočan, Michael Pierce, V Jordan, Gil, HalfwitHam, Mark Brophy, David Urdenata, Juan Valdez, Bruce Roberts, Chad Norman, Bruce Roberts, Shamikh Rana, Friday Guy, Marc De Mesel, Augusto Ramos, Soy Boomer Doomer, Bob Slartabartfast, Robert Feiler, Camil Dbouk, Erik Montesinos, Matthew Loos, Az Indragiri, Aman Bali, Lautaro Parada, Pratap, Deborah Joseph, Robin Sung, Kurt Johnston, Dominik Auerbach, Gurmeet Kaushal, John Hall, Dara Mo, Josef Goergen, Wilbert Cheng, Jaroslav Tupý, Trevor Lucey JB Weld, Alex, Carlos Figuera, Peter Pomelov, Null065, Rick Thor, MeBerzerk, Henry Nguyen, Sola F, The Collier, Carlos Mejia, J Wadia, Bitcoin OG, easy boekhouding, Albert, Eugene Jung, Daniel Cervini, Jonathon Yong, Iris Ji, Emil Nicolaie Perhinschi, Charles, Eli Auto, Excks, Michael Li, Par Hedman, Praveen Mishra, Gerard Scott, joel köykkä, Areeb Ahmed, David Wang, Rodolfo Cornetti, Daniel Winroth, johnny, Nick Jerrat, Chris Houston, Alastair Currie, Robert Griffin, Andrei, zizi Golo, Fab Vida, Constantin Petrenco, pawel irisik, NotAScam, James Halliday, 22 Dust, Carsten Baukrowitz, Heinrich, Arron T, Ben Brown, Stephen Mortimer (to The Moon), Ryan B. 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Bush, and Yoshinao Kumagai

[@kevinmccarthy8746]

The UK and America I hope figure out a way to get these guys. Unfortunately there are lots of bad apples out there , on every level.

[@Penrose707]

I guess Marco Rubio could have done a better job being the sole overseer of all pandemic relief funds in the US. Who could have imagined truly /s

[@esterhudson5104]

Patrick, I live outside of Seattle and the hospitals were NEVER overrun. Never. I kid you not, staff were not coming in due to the lack of need. Skeleton crews at best..

[@robberttruijens6552]

Not to mention all the tiktok videos of nurses/doctors who were happily dancing and prancing around🤦

[@jakegamer8870]

Thanks for covering this. The narrative was how stimi checks to people boomed demand. No way, there had to be hundreds of billions of dollars if not a trillion of free money going to enrich giant entities and people, thus removing tens of millions from having to work, bubbling asset purchases and real estate, and huge Inflation for all. I hope they really get to the bottom, but damage is ongoing.

[@iller3]

These numbers would be WAY HIGHER if they included all of the Corporations who didn't need any of this money or tax breaks. Most of them did stock buybacks & double digit dividends to their shareholders with the all that PPP and free 0% interest Quant easing.

[@CharlesLambert137]

So government bureaucracy (the world over) showed, yet again, what it does best: incompetence. That so many people believe that government is their lord and savior is mind-blowing.

[@gerhard977]

Not all countries...

[@vraghuvenkataraman6013]

Disasters are indeed abused for personal gain. In India the Finance Ministry officials had handled the COVID crises very conservatively by focussing assistance in the form of food grains supply to poor people without throwing money around which fraudsters could have misused. You can do a study on the strategy followed in India.

[@magamike1800]

New Zealand was the same.

[@scuffmacgillicutty7509]

Ditto Canada.

[@jal051]

@@scuffmacgillicutty7509 It happens everywhere.

[@weijingburr2392]

Statistically, 10% loss for fraud/loss is about right for any business.

[@simonjones3863]

And then there's resistance to tuition relief.

[@basedinspace]

Yes, we need to print more money, thats the solution.

[@pushslice]

Trust me, if that ever happens (I’m going to leave the judgment of the principle of it, for a separate debate)…. the Resulting widespread scamming to take advantage of whatever the government passes… will be another Yuge, epic-fail. basically anytime the government prints money, a big chunk will be stolen/squandered. This is our reality.

[@Chris-ey8zf]

@@basedinspace Yes, we do, considering every single politician who is against student loan relief took out hundreds of thousands in PPP loans, then completely forgave them, no questions asked. It's almost as if allowing politicians to steal our tax dollars, but being alright with that while punishing actual taxpayers isn't a great way to run a society. It's not even printing money, as all the student loans are federally backed already. It would just be writing them off. Making people pay off the student loans is a great way to take money out of the economy that is already teetering on recession.

[@SagaraUrz]

Politicians stole way more than those fraudsters.

[@w__a__l__e]

so to sum it up some people are shitty and we are really bad at running things lol

[@Witnessmoo]

Government is, yes.

[@chinesemassproduction]

I agree that it is very disheartening to see the public seem to take advantage of a situation in where unity was needed more than ever. Many Americans showed their true nature during that time, and I have been very disappointed with my people for years because of it.

[@davidzoller9617]

So first they distributed careless a huge amount of money, and now they can investigate for many years to come. There's where your Taxes go.

[@numericalcode]

So it IS a jobs program!

[@prettyblueplanet]

😂 our government and its administration, so sad. Funding needless wars, broken programs, unable to find a home for commercial nuclear waste, and political leaders who don’t or can’t read the legislation before they vote on it.😢

[@dylananderson7658]

Don't change a thing, Patrick - love your content and style.

[@_TravelWithLove]

Thank you very much for sharing your insights and intelligence filled videos always !! Straightforward and factual !! Excellent !! Greetings from California … I wish you and folks good health, success and happiness !! Much Love ✌️😎💕

[@Yakuzachris10]

If anyone knows someone who commmited fraud, report it, especially if it was above $1 Million. If you provide inside information to the justice dept on a silver platter you are entitled for up to 30% of the assets clawed back.

[@julianfoot8748]

As a small business owner in Australia I couldn't get any aid in the pandemic as I was a videographer. If I had been a Photographer, or a casino or run a brothel I could have had aid. If I had a friend in the UK Tory Government I could have set up a firm selling face masks and made a fortune. If I had been the CEO of Qantas or Harvey Norman or ny other big company, I could have taken lots of public money, Laid off staff, and awarded myself and my shareholders huge dividends and not paid the money back. As usual whenever the big finance consultants are involved there is plenty of economy saving aid, and plenty of opportunities to rort the government and the taxpayer. PWC and the like did a great job for their shareholders and the super rich throughout the pandemic. And those people who mention their relatives rorting the system... did you shop them in... or did you expect someone else to do the dirty work for you and then blame the government for your complicit behaviour?

[@jonpierson559]

This is a perfect example of how government is rarely the solution but almost always a big part of the problem.

[@letsRegulateSociopaths]

I love it when people have no idea of the multitude of benefits they receive. You ever drive? Breathe air? Drink water?

[@ellazanardi1726]

​@@letsRegulateSociopaths drive thank the car industrials - water - thank nature / air - thank nature ... You have other benefits in mind right ? Like unemployment ones ?

[@the_expidition427]

The actions for these benefits are done by local municipalities not federal agencies Office of the Comptroller and U.S. Treasury being a few

[@zaco-km3su]

No, it isn't. The government is the solution. Most of the problem was companies.

[@zaco-km3su]

@@letsRegulateSociopaths Bingo. Also, ella doesn't get it. She tries to sound smart but fails.

[@brahtrumpwonbigly7309]

That's the stupid tax we pay for giving our money to the government just to have them give it back to us in aid.

[@nosac1230]

Essentially, all you had to do to get a PPP loan was to apply for it -- free money I personally know three businessmen, one in real estate development, one in construction, and one in electrical and plumbing supplies, who very quickly applied for and received the money even though they had zero need for it. As of a few months ago, 92% of the PPP loans had neen forgiven completely or in large part. Even if it was determined you needed to repay part of the loan, keep in mind that the first round of PPP loans were provided at 1% interest. Again, free money. So, many tens of billions of dollars were spewed into the economy and given to a great many people who did not need the money, but felt that they could not turn down an essentially free loan. You can't control that kind of inflation - - it's already been spewed into the economy.

[@alexlopez5800]

That explains why tons of people never got that money.

[@PhiTonics]

"If you liked this video.." can't say that I did Pattrick! 😂 Talk about depressing.. Our government is so worthless.

[@emzywillrich7243]

If our government is worthless, try another one!

[@andrewharrison8436]

Yeah, don't exceed the maximum daily dose of cynicism - I might watch another video tomorrow.

[@gordonwilson1631]

But the Crime of the Centuries is the private creation of money supply (not cash) since 1694 in England. This is now a massive loss of seigniorage for the UK as about 97% of UK money supply is now created out of nothing by private commercial banks (ref. Bank of England Q1 2014 Quarterly Bulletin). This is now the Western macroeconomic model so things can only get worse for the people.

[@dogetaxes8893]

Not gonna lie it should’ve been expected that if your gonna turn on the money printer and shove money out the door as fast you can your gonna get bad actors taking advantage. I remember here in Australia would often hear stories of people going out of their way to get COVID or be exposed to get the isolation payments.

[@ronskancke1489]

In the USA they paid many people more in unemployment than they could make working and they did it for a very long time.

[@maryhadda8420]

I hope that every one of those crooks gets caught, is made to pay back triple the amount they stole, and spend five years in prison.

[@chasejones8302]

It would have taken a tiny amount of analysis to filter out most of the fraud. And the "legitimate" money was unnecessary most of the time. Only the restaurants and travel related biz closed. Other businesses carried on.

[@Ihaveanamenowtaken]

This is too simplified.

[@xraceboyex]

Every single dollar they give out is fraud by definition lol. If it doesn't come from tax revenue - that's fraud

[@claudeyaz]

The government was warned by the people, and they did this anyway. So I wondered if it was intentional at this point

[@donsilverson9927]

We all got played yet no one will do anything bout it cause we’re all too busy on instagram and arguing the definition of what a women is.

[@MrNicoJac]

"The biggest scam" still sounds like it should be _one single_ coordinated effort. This is more like a shoal of piranhas each took their 'tiny' bite...

[@joephysics5469]

Our politicians are quite on this failure of theirs. We should automatically clean all of them from office and start over. That includes all of The permanent employees in D.C..

[@hillbilly4895]

Rule #1: Once the Government has your money it's no longer your money. Rule #2: The Government is terrible at managing money because it's not theirs either. Rule #3: