The Great Pandemic Theft

<p>During the pandemic, an enormous amount of money — about $5 trillion in total — was spent to help support the newly unemployed and to prop up the U.S. economy while it was forced into suspension.</p><p>But the funds came with few strings and minimal oversight. The result: one of the largest frauds in American history, with billions of dollars stolen by thousands of people.</p><p>Guest: David A. Fahrenthold, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, focused on nonprofits.</p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>Investigators say there was so much fraud in federal Covid-relief programs that — even after two years of work and hundreds of prosecutions —<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/16/business/economy/covid-pandemic-fraud.html"> they’re still just getting started</a>.</li><li>A federal watchdog<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/business/unemployment-insurance-fraud-pandemic.html"> almost tripled its estimate</a> of the amount of unemployment benefits paid out to people who weren’t entitled to them, raising the figure to $45.6 billion, from $16 billion.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>