Left Holding The Bag

Inside the largest public fraud scandal in American history With a mask-wearing nation under stay-at-home orders while a deadly virus ravaged the population, during toilet paper and PPE shortages and people dying alone in ICUs, before vaccines and immunity and time reopened the American way of life after three years—the federal government, through six hastily written COVID-19 relief laws provided the largest infusion of emergency relief spending in US history. The federal government distributed an unfathomable $5 trillion, through a jumble of federal programs in the hundreds, to a menagerie of recipients in the millions. Programs were poorly designed and easily exploited by unscrupulous operators. Competing crises soon distracted the nation, while homegrown and global pirates looted federal pandemic relief programs and plundered roughly $500 billion in relief funds—that’s your money that was stolen. This audiobook is a behind-the scenes look at this extraordinary time, the federal government’s unprecedented response, and the exemplary work of the inspectors general and their federal law enforcement partners as they followed the money, flagged fraud risks, disrupted fraud schemes, and chased bad guys through a stunning true crime wave. Our country literally can’t afford another financial hit like this, and Westbrooks provides a blueprint to help ensure it never happens again. “The American people deserve to know that their tax dollars are being spent as intended. My message to those cheats out there is this: You can’t hide. We’re going to find you. We’re going to make you pay back what you stole and hold you accountable under the law.” – President Joe Biden