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Vance: Federal Government Has Identified $230 Billion In Fraud Since March

Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times,

Vice President JD Vance said on Aug. 5 that the Trump administration has identified $230 billion in fraud and prevented $56 billion in fraudulent payments since the president’s Fraud Task Force was established in March.

Vance discussed the task force’s initiatives at a roundtable in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building attended by more than a dozen Republican lawmakers. He said the work by the task force so far is starting to show results.

“We have been able to identify $230 billion of fraud just since the Fraud Task Force was set up, and that’s frankly by conservatively estimating it,” Vance said.

He urged Congress to codify certain anti-fraud actions taken by the administration to ensure that they remain in effect under future administrations.

“This effort will fundamentally always have a limitation unless our colleagues in the House and the Senate are working with us,” Vance said.

“We don’t want the next administration ... to undo all the incredible work that we’ve been doing.”

The vice president said one of the first steps Congress can take is to force data sharing between state and federal governments to crack down on fraud.

He said that if a state gives food stamp benefits to an illegal immigrant or a violent criminal, the federal government often cannot detect who is receiving those benefits.

The vice president also called on Congress to make fraud harder to commit and to ensure that convicted fraudsters receive longer prison sentences that better reflect the seriousness of their crimes.

On March 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a task force after large-scale fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid and federal assistance programs drew national attention late last year. He then appointed Vance to lead the new task force while also creating a fraud-focused division in the Justice Department.

Speaking at the event, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who co-chairs the task force, said that fraudsters target federal assistance programs because they are relatively easy to exploit. He said one reason is that “the punishments associated with much of the fraud are relatively low.”

Hence, the administration wants to work with Congress to significantly increase sentences for all levels of fraud, he said, to deter potential fraudsters from targeting these programs.

On Aug. 4, authorities announced that 19 people have been charged with Medicaid fraud for allegedly submitting more than $4 million in false home care bills. The investigation was a joint effort by several federal and state law enforcement agencies.

The White House on Aug. 6 announced that it has launched a new website to track the administration’s moves to eliminate alleged fraud, waste, and abuse in government agencies.

“Each partner agency reported three figures” to the task force led by Vance, the site states, noting that the “fraud uncovered” section on the site “represents total estimated fraud identified through data analysis” while the “fraud stopped” portion “counts the dollars saved annually through administrative actions such as provider suspensions and rule changes.”

Vance said in a recent interview with Fox News:

“I don’t care where you came from, I don’t care what your name is. If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should ... try to throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”

A similar initiative was established under the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was associated with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and which was wound down by July 2026. DOGE’s website also included contracts, leases, and other items that were targeted for elimination by the Trump administration.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 15:45

Consumer Credit Jumps More Than Expected In June As Credit Card Debt Spikes

One month after the May consumer credit posting a shocking decline - the first since late 2024 - driven by a plunge in revolving credit, things are mostly back to normal, with the Fed reporting in its latest G.19 report that in June, US consumer credit posted a healthy $14.17BN bounce - a full reversal of the May drop of $1.1 billion - and above the $11.9 billion median estimate. 

The rebound was driven by a sizable reversal in last month's drop in revolving credit (i.e., credit card debt), as consumer resumed buying on credit to the tune of $6.7BN...

... bringing the total amount of outstanding credit card debt to $1.351 trillion, just $1 billion away from the all time high set in October 2024.

Meanwhile, non-revolving credit rose by its slow and steady monthly pace of $7.4 billion, lifting the total amount of student and auto loans to a new record high of $3.816 trillion.

What is interesting, is that while auto loans have barely budged since late 2023, staying around 1.6 trillion for nearly three years, and hitting a record $1.571 trillion at the end of June, student loans have resumed their ascent, and after a modest decline in late 2023, student loans are once again at all time highs although in June we saw a tiny decline of $4.5 billion.

Finally for those keeping tabs, after a modest decline in the previous two quarter, the average interest rate on credit card accounts assessed interest rose to 22.15%...

... a level last seen three years ago, when the Fed rates was almost 2% higher, which confirms our long-running observation that credit card rates go up but they never go down.

One final observation: after a period of about 6 years when the average amount financed by auto loans was around $25,000 (from 2008 to 2014), this amount has grown dramatically, and in Q1 2026 it hit a new record high of $42,500, the highest on record. Just in case there was confusion what is behind the relentless increase in car prices...

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 15:32

“The cancellation comes after what he described as the paper’s series of false blood libels and ongoing incitement against the Jewish state,” a statement said.

The Philadelphia 76ers won the LeBron James free agent sweepstakes this summer. VJ Edgecombe, like many basketball fans, was extremely excited to welcome the four-time NBA champion to the team. The 21-year-old had the chance to speak with James directly after the two-year, $8 million deal was announced, which he detailed during an interview at...

The jobs eliminated include positions in technology and product and sales and distribution.

Horrifying surveillance footage captured Idaho In-N-Out gunman Chad Williams’ every move while carrying out the deadly rampage that left three dead and several others wounded.

Bryson DeChambeau's ultimate goal is that golf finds a place where LIV Golf is not an adversary to the PGA Tour, that the two can co-exist.

"It truly breaks my heart," the 23-year-old singer said as she shared the announcement.

"It truly breaks my heart," the 23-year-old singer said as she shared the announcement.

A zero-land island spanning 155 acres of deep-water lagoon in the Maldives — designed like an eco-conscious doomsday bunker for the 1% — asks $450 million. 

A 27-year-old Southern California man drowned while visiting Sequoia National Park over the weekend, marking another deadly incident in the park’s notoriously dangerous waterways.

No cause of death has been confirmed.

The fans are already reacting: "welcome home troy and harris."

Max Fried will see plenty of familiar faces when he takes the mound Friday night in The Bronx.

LAS VEGAS — The image of Kirk Cousins as the ultimate Goody Two-shoes preceded his arrival in Las Vegas. Maybe it’s the fact that he now plays for the Raiders. Maybe Sin City is rubbing off on him. Whatever the reason, Cousins seems to have undergone quite the transformation. Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) mixed...

Popular NorCal winery faces $37M foreclosure

The furniture giant is throwing a cheekily named "Meatballbecue" at its sprawling Southern California store this weekend.

Senate Passes The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia & Iran Act Of 2026

On Friday the Senate finally passed a bill imposing major new sanctions on Russia due to the grinding war which has been going since February 2022.

The bill had bipartisan support, with a vote of 86 to 11, and now it will go to the House - where it is expected to be passed there too. After a year of negotiations and holdups based largely on prior White House pushback, the 'breakthrough' is largely the result of the death of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

The bill is called literally the The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 - which aptly reveals the late senator's hawkish stance on all 'official enemies'.

In places he couldn't start a war, he would certainly at least advocate for hard-hitting sanctions, which technically is itself an act of war. In many ways Graham continued with the mantle of John McCain - who never saw a conflict he didn't want to rush American forces into.

The newly Senate-passed sanctions act "allows the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top five purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas." There are some crucial caveats:

There are exceptions for countries that import less than 15% of their natural gas from Russia and are taking "significant" steps to reduce the imports. It also includes sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin, officials within his government, oligarchs and Russian banks and financial institutions. 

It remains that China and India are the largest buyers of Russian crude oil, but there are also still some EU countries which have remained under pressure to cut their Russian imports significantly.

The sanctions also extend Washington's ongoing economic warfare on Iran's energy and weapons sectors, which was an expected part of the legislation. 

Proud 2 support Sen passage of Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act in BIG bipart vote 86-11 This bill holds Putin accountable for largest land war in Europe since WWII+ protects our natl security

It wldnt hv been possible w/o the work of our late colleague Lindsey Graham

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) August 7, 2026

Sen. Graham had actually spent spent years trying to finally advance it across the finish line, but the Trump administration had initially entered the White House loudly pushing diplomacy with Moscow and the idea that a swift end to the over four-year long war could be achieved by Trump's direct mediation and negotiating prowess. The policy reached an apex with the Trump-Putin Alaska summit, but failed to take off from there.

Instead, the world is currently witnessing the war's biggest escalatory phase in years, especially given the nightly major Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy sites and infrastructure. Russia's aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities, including on the capital, has in turn stepped up.

Trump on Lindsey Graham: "I wanted to see the war with Ukraine end very quickly. I think he was more into, you know, keeping it going, frankly."

Trump on Lindsey Graham:

I wanted to see the war with Ukraine end very quickly. I think he was more into, you know, keeping it going, frankly.pic.twitter.com/sjHCNcMsZn

— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 12, 2026

Pro-Ukraine hawks have been salivating and waiting for this moment, and again lawmakers have been bipartisan on this. For example, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, previously announced that passing the bill would serve as a "fitting memorial" to Graham and everything he represented.

"There can be no more fitting memorial to Lindsey, his legacy, or the causes he fought for, than to pass this legislation and realize his long-held dream of an independent and secure Ukraine," she said.

Tyler Durden Fri, 08/07/2026 - 15:00