The Task Force to Eliminate Fraud headed up by Vice President JD Vance has notched a number of wins throughout April, including uncovering what is suspected to be more than $6 billion in fraudulent government contracts.
It has been just over five weeks since President Donald Trump launched the anti-fraud task force and tapped Vance to be its chair. The task force has put together a productive April after hitting the ground running in March.
On April 8, a Daily Caller report detailed that the task force had found that almost 400 businesses suspected of fraud had received contracts, many of which came during the Biden era.
“The task force, alongside the General Services Administration (GSA), are beginning to send out letters to nearly 400 businesses with government contracts that they believe could be fraudulent, administration officials told the Caller,” the outlet’s Reagan Reese reported.
Businesses must provide evidence of their legitimacy, including a physical address, within 30 days.
“The fact that these taxpayer dollars went out without verifying if the contractors and vendors were even real or lawful businesses is a disgrace and yet another example of how the previous administration flouted basic anti-fraud guardrails,” a senior White House official told the outlet.
A week later, on April 15, Fox News reported that the number of Los Angeles hospices suspended for potential fraud had risen.
“The anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance has suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies suspected of fraud in Los Angeles, with a total fraud estimate of more than $600 million,” the outlet reported.
The next day, the Department of Agriculture announced it had executed search warrants for alleged SNAP benefits trafficking in Minnesota as part of operation “Cold SNAP,” a release from the department noted:
Part of an ongoing initiative under the operational name “Cold SNAP,” the law enforcement partners collaborated with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to identify authorized retailers participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that fraudulently trafficked in SNAP benefits. USDA Inspector General John Walk and other senior OIG leadership joined law enforcement agents at the pre-operation briefing and thanked them for their work against fraud in USDA financial assistance programs.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins emphasized that Vance’s task force “powered” operation Cold SNAP, which led to the execution of criminal warrants against more than 20 allegedly fraudulent SNAP retailers.
“Proud of the continued work of the task force to root out fraud,” Vance said of the operation.
This week, the federal government took additional steps to address fraud. The Department of Justice, under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division Colin McDonald, announced on Wednesday that it made $300 million available to prosecute fraud, drug trafficking, and other offenses.
“This unprecedented funding opportunity is part of the Department of Justice’s historic effort to activate every available tool to secure the physical and financial security of our nation,” McDonald said. “We invite prosecutors across the country to join the mission to eliminate fraud, defeat the drug cartels, and rescue victims of trafficking.”
On Thursday, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz sent a letter to every governor in the union, requesting their Medicaid programs “undertake a swift revalidation of Medicaid providers of services at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption.” Fox News first reported on the letters.
“Dr. Oz and HHS are at the forefront of the good work of our task force and rooting out the rampant fraud in our Medicaid system,” Vance said in a statement shared via X. “I’m urging all states to comply with the revalidation of their programs to find those who are defrauding American taxpayers.”
Oz requested that all governors respond within 10 business days as to whether they intend to comply with his revalidation request.
“The whole-of-government effort powering the Vice President’s task force to root out fraud is working,” a Vance spokesperson told Breitbart News. “In April alone, the task force has uncovered mass fraud, put guardrails in place to stop the endless spout of unchecked dollars and delivered results for the American people. Rest assured the task force will find and bring to justice anyone defrauding the American taxpayer.”
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