US lays charges in ‘egregious plot’ to steal child meal funding during the covid-19 pandemic
The covid-19 pandemic era has been discovered to be one of the most fraudulent era in recent times. This is because most people across the world use the pandemic period to become richer instead of using resources for the purpose of which they were provided for, they divert these funds for their personal use.
I think this act is predominant to the African region, which many government officials used public funds for their personal aggrandizement. For instance, in Nigeria, funds and palliatives might for public usage were diverted into personal warehouses of those politicians.
In the US a group of people have been discovered who had allegedly tried to steal funds might to feed low income children during the pandemic. Below is the statement made by the US Justice Department:
The US Justice Department has charged 47 people in the state of Minnesota for allegedly participating in an “egregious” scheme to steal $250m from a federal programme that provides food to low-income children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement on Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the “egregious plot to steal public funds meant to care for children in need … amounts to the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme yet”.Source
Diverting funds might to care for children means a lot to the US government and also amounts to fraud, which is punishable by the law. It should be noted that many children died during the covid-19 pandemic, not from being covid positive, but probably due to hunger that's associated with the inabilities of their parents not to meet up with their daily needs.
Prosecutors say the defendants created companies that claimed to be offering food to tens of thousands of children across Minnesota, then sought reimbursement for those meals through the US Department of Agriculture’s food nutrition programmes.Source
During the covid-19 era, the companies underserved the children with few meals daily and were reimbursed by the government. The most annoying part is that the large chunk of money were reserved for themselves instead of using the money to feed the children. The accused used the monies to buy luxurious cars, properties as well as living a comfortable lifestyle.
Andy Luger, the US attorney for Minnesota, said during a news conference that the government was billed for more than 125 million fake meals, with some defendants making up names for children by using an online random name generator.Source
Registering over 125 million fake meals and generating names from a random name generator online is one of the highest fraudulent lifestyle in this dispensation.
With proper investigation in ground, the government have recovered over $50 million in funds and properties from the accused persons and many more will be recovered as the investigations goes on.