Waste, Fraud & Abuse
The IRS loses up to $304 billion a year to fraud. It still has no antifraud strategy
The IRS is a prime target for fraudsters, who bilk the tax agency out of as much as $300 billion a year in refunds or underpayments on taxes owed, according to a new analysis by Congress's top watchdog.
ICE rushed to buy 11 warehouses for detention. Now it’s trying to sell 7 of them
ICE's effort to rapidly build its detention capacity has wasted millions of dollars as the Trump administration took a spend-first, ask-questions-later approach, the Government Accountability Office said in a withering audit Thursday.
Sen. Rand Paul to refer Fauci aide for prosecution after Democrats block immunity deal
Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday he will refer a longtime aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, saying she had a "20-year history of destroying records" for him.
Federal prosecutors say mailman tossed 300 mail-in ballots ahead of Utah primary
Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against a former mailman who they accused of dumping about 300 mail-in ballots he was supposed to deliver ahead of Utah's primary election in June.
Marsha Blackburn wants a national database on child trafficking rings before she exits Senate
Sen. Marsha Blackburn says the Justice Department doesn't have a central database to catalog child trafficking rings.
Florida woman admits to scamming $750,000 from Epstein victims fund
An autism scholar from Boca Raton, Florida, faces up to 20 years in prison for fraudulently claiming $750,000 from a fund to compensate victims of Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes.
Pandemic relief fraud was not sophisticated. The verification was simply switched off
When Congress waived basic identity checks to speed up pandemic relief, fraudsters exploited the system to steal hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds.
How federal telework fraud actually gets caught, and why it takes so long
Federal law has long barred employees from holding more than one full-time government position at the same time without approval, a restriction codified at 5 U.S.C. 5533. What the law has never required is a mechanism for checking it.
Feds ban 870,000 suspected pandemic fraudsters from getting future government loans
Vice President J.D. Vance announced Monday that the government is barring 870,000 people from getting future federal loans because they are suspected of defrauding the government during the pandemic.
Warning of AI doomsday ‘swarm’ sparks push to slam brakes on superhuman technology
A string of new, terrifying warnings from the artificial intelligence community has put Congress, the White House and the A.I. industry on notice: Slow the progress of the rapidly developing technology before a swarm of bots takes over the Internet and "kill all humans."
Skid row scam: Fraudsters used homeless to pose as valid voters for California referendum drive
Federal prosecutors have charged three California residents for allegedly scamming the state's referendum system by paying homeless people to pose as other voters, then sign petitions to try to get measures on the ballot.
