The Minnesota child-feeding fraud scandal stole $350 million meant for hungry kids and shocked the entire country.
A House watchdog panel just heard about a scheme that makes Minnesota look like a rounding error.
And the number they put on the board will have taxpayers ready to revolt.
The Largest COVID Unemployment Fraud in American History
Fraudsters stole at least $76 billion from pandemic unemployment programs.
That's the finding from the Department of Labor's own Inspector General.
Linda Miller, president of the Program Integrity Alliance, told the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare that the pandemic unemployment fraud "completely dwarfs the fraud scandal we've seen in Minnesota or any other fraud scandal to date."
She meant that in absolute terms.
Total improper payments could reach $191 billion – nearly one in four dollars sent out.
To put that in perspective: Tim Walz's Minnesota child-feeding fraud scandal consumed months of national headlines over $350 million.
This is $76 billion confirmed stolen.
That's 217 Tim Walz-sized scandals running simultaneously, all while Biden was writing the checks.
Banks Flagged the Fraud and the Biden Administration Didn't Answer
Banks caught the fraud in real time.
They called the government to return stolen money.
Nobody picked up.
"We called and we couldn't get the money back," Miller told the subcommittee, relaying what banks told her. "We didn't know who to ask. Nobody answered the phone. They didn't tell us how we could give the money back."
Banks were so scared of legal liability that they couldn't freeze the fraudulent accounts without risking a lawsuit.
Biden didn't just fail to stop the fraud – he made himself unreachable while it was happening.
$720 million in stolen funds still sits on prepaid debit cards right now, untouched, waiting for someone in Washington to bother recovering it.
Another $192 million was quietly surrendered to state unclaimed property funds instead of being clawed back to the federal treasury.
Subcommittee Chairman Darin LaHood said it plainly: "The bad news is, instead of rightfully being recovered and returned to the federal treasury, the funds are now being transferred to state coffers as a result of inaction."
Russia and China Stole Billions in Taxpayer Money and Are Still Waiting for Their Pardon
Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito delivered the most alarming testimony of the hearing.
Foreign adversaries – Russia, China, criminal networks in Nigeria and Romania – stole American pandemic relief money and funneled it overseas.
And now they're running out the clock on the statute of limitations.
"There are criminals, whether they are here in the United States of America, or our adversaries across the globe, who are waiting for the statute of limitations to run out so that they can cash in on some of that $1 billion," D'Esposito told Congress.
Experts estimated that the bulk of the overseas-stolen money – potentially $140 billion – went to state-backed organizations in China, Russia, Nigeria, and Romania.
That money is being used right now for terrorism, illegal drugs, and worse.
American taxpayers funded it.
John Thune Handed Pandemic Fraudsters a Get Out of Jail Free Card
The House passed the Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act 295 to 127 last March – with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The bill does one simple thing: extends the statute of limitations from five years to ten so federal prosecutors can chase down the thieves.
The Senate placed it on the calendar and never voted on it.
While senators did nothing, the five-year statute of limitations began expiring – case by case, criminal by criminal – starting in March 2025.
The Department of Justice had 1,648 open, uncharged COVID-19 fraud investigations.
There were 157,000 open unemployment fraud hotline complaints.
One fraudster claimed to be 177 different people to file claims in a single state.
Another funneled $59 million in stolen benefits directly to co-conspirators in China.
All of those cases – dozens already confirmed – are now dead because the clock ran out while the Senate sat on its hands.
Only 5% of the fraudulent payments have been recovered.
Five percent.
Democrats Built the System That Made This Possible
This didn't happen by accident.
Biden inherited a Democrat-written $880 billion unemployment firehose – zero identity verification, zero fraud detection, and state systems running on 1980s technology.
Experts warned the White House in real time.
Haywood Talcove says he sent administration officials screenshots from dark web forums where criminal rings in China, Nigeria, Romania, and Russia were openly mapping out how to loot the system before the first check was even mailed.
They ignored him.
"As soon as the CARES money was announced, we started seeing squawking on the dark web," Talcove said. "They see our systems are open."
Biden's answer was to send the money faster.
Now, one year after House Republicans passed the bill to prosecute the thieves, the Senate has given foreign adversaries and domestic criminals exactly what they wanted – a quiet expiration date on their crimes, courtesy of Washington inaction.
The Inspector General confirmed the theft – $76 billion minimum, possibly $135 billion or more.
The House passed the fix 295 to 127.
John Thune never called the vote.
Every case that expired while the Senate sat on its hands is a criminal who walks free with your money – and Thune's fingerprints are on every single one of them.
Sources:
- Mary McCue Bell, "Pandemic jobless fraud 'dwarfs' Minnesota scandal, was largest taxpayer theft in history: Watchdog," The Washington Times, March 5, 2026.
- House Ways and Means Committee, "One Day Left: Shot Clock About to Expire on Prosecuting Those Who Stole Billions in Pandemic Unemployment Benefits," Ways and Means, March 26, 2025.
- House Ways and Means Committee, "Law Enforcement Forced to Halt Investigations of Unemployment Fraud; Senate Action Needed," Ways and Means, May 30, 2025.
- Stephen Dinan, "Feds Pay Billions to Fraudsters Tied to China and Russia in COVID-19 Schemes," The Washington Times, November 29, 2021.
- Stephen Dinan, "Secret Service Confirms Hackers Linked to Russia, China Stole U.S. Pandemic Relief Money," The Washington Times, February 1, 2023.
- Sen. Mike Crapo, "The Greatest Theft of Taxpayer Dollars in History," U.S. Senate, 2022.