Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano said Tuesday that he and other government officials will continue “to drive out fraud, waste, and abuse” after uncovering nearly $100 million in federal payments associated with dead people.
In a press release, the Treasury Department announced a new government-wide payment verification system to prevent payments to dead people.
“To date, Treasury has screened over 885 million payments totaling approximately $2.77 trillion as part of the new payment verification process,” the release said. (Emphasis original.)
“The screening has identified more than 4,900 payments worth approximately $99 million that were associated with deceased payees,” it added. “Those payments were returned to the originating federal agencies for review before any funds were disbursed.”
Bisignano joined CNBC’s Squawk on the Street in the morning on the heels of the announcement and emphasized that the effort to crack down on fraud and payments to dead individuals will persist.
“We’re stopping it, and this is great work of the vice president and the Treasury secretary, and in cooperation across the whole administration,” Bisignano said when asked how this fraud was uncovered.
He lauded President Donald Trump’s leadership in spearheading partnerships across agencies to root out fraud, waste, and abuse.
“Fraud, waste, and abuse has been a platform we’ve been running on since we got here, and it’s teamwork that you see that never happened in any administration,” he said.
“It’s only under this president’s great leadership are we able to get that type of partnership across SSA, Treasury, and all the rest of the government,” Bisignano added. “And Treasury is the place where payments have been stopped to not pay them where they shouldn’t have gone.”
Bisignano said the battle to root out fraud is really a never-ending one.
“We’re going to stay at it… We’ve done a lot of work in SSA to eliminate erroneous payments; Treasury and the whole government’s locked down on it. So I think you can count on us continuing to drive out fraud, waste, and abuse in many avenues. And you know this will be a lifelong journey here,” he said.
In a statement provided to Breitbart News, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lauded the work Bisignano has done in eliminating waste.
“With decades of experience leading some of America’s most successful companies, Frank Bisignano has brought proven executive leadership, operational excellence, and a results-driven mindset to the IRS,” Bessent said. “He has done a terrific job delivering better service to taxpayers, eliminating waste, modernizing operations, and ensuring the agency works for the American people.”
During the interview with CNBC, Bisignano also dismissed what he calls “really bad journalism” from the Wall Street Journal, which ran an article Monday claiming Bisignano “Spied on Colleagues When He Worked at JPMorgan.”
“That is an unnamed source. There are no named sources in the article. My record stands for itself,” he said. “Charlie [Scharf] and Mike Cavanaugh, all still great friends of mine. This is really bad journalism.”
“None of it’s true, ever, in my whole career,” he added, and also said “political reasons” are driving the “bad journalism.”
Bisignano’s lawyer also refuted the claims in a statement to the Journal:
Courtney Forrest, a lawyer for Bisignano, said in a statement that he never spied on co-workers. She said he “never directed anyone to look through any employee’s or executive’s communications or engaged in any form of surveillance.” She said Bisignano “never accessed a draft FERC complaint,” that he and Scharf “have maintained a strong personal and professional relationship for years” and that it was false “that an executive planted a codeword to catch” Bisignano reading the email.
She also told the outlet that JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon “never asked, encouraged, or suggested that Mr. Bisignano leave JPMorgan” and Bisignano left on his own accord to lead First Data.
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