Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and unveil a new anti-fraud program to expose fraud in health care and other industries.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is offering what could be “thousands of billions” in restitution to embezzlers who stepped up during the Biden administration’s crackdown on prisoners under the state of emergency COVID aid, he told Fox News on Monday.
“We can pay a reward of up to 30% of the proceeds,” Bessent told “Fox & Friends.”
Bessent said the fraudsters were let go because former President Joe Biden’s administration loosened fraud controls to speed up hundreds of billions in pandemic-related money to Americans who need it, and now the bailout stands with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance as the kingpin of the scam.
“We are all holding hands because this is money that is not going where it should go, but the most important thing is that it is being stolen from the American taxpayer,” said Bessent. “We must be a very honest society. We must understand where the money goes.”
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offers 30% of the “thousands of billions” that could be returned to the bold fraudsters of the Biden era. (FOX Business)
“This could be hundreds of billions of dollars in recovered money,” he said.
Bessent’s Treasury Department is now offering whistleblowers a large financial incentive to help uncover fraud, directing potential tipsters to the Treasury.gov website and says officials have received more than 700 leads. The Treasury report page states that qualified tipsters can receive between 10% and 30% of the fines collected from successful transactions.
Bessent also blamed weaknesses in anti-fraud enforcement in the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic.
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Former President Joe Biden’s administration has been accused of cracking down on fraud and mismanagement of hundreds of billions in COVID aid funds. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“A lot of this is a result of the time of COVID,” Bessent said. “Many companies under the Biden administration are hacking their fraud departments, fraud detection, or reducing fraud detection in order to get money out quickly for COVID relief. But they have never paid back the custodians of our money. So, we have to have integrity in these programs.”
He pointed out that strong monitoring and public transparency are needed to restore integrity in government programs, saying that green states like California and New York are responsible for fraudsters who oppose government oversight and investigations.
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Unleash Prosperity founder Stephen Moore and Heritage Foundation senior economist Peter St. Onge discusses the Trump administration’s push to fight fraud on ‘The Bottom Line.’
While Minnesota’s fraud among the Somali community has been in the national headlines until now thanks to a report by independent journalist Nick Shirley, Bessent actually praised that state for having a level of transparency not allowed in California or New York.
“That’s why that young man, Nick Shirley, was able to see the scams, because it was: This is the name of the institution; this is the address; this is how much money they got,” said Bessent. “Oh, look, it’s an empty store. There’s nobody here. New York, California has you covered.”
Freelance reporter Nick Shirley breaks down fraud allegations in Minnesota and California on ‘FOX Business In Depth.’
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Countries need to be clearer, blue and red, concluded Bessent.
“We’re all in favor of states’ rights and states doing more, but the money goes into these blue states, and some of the red states can be seen in the open,” he said.
