How much money did politicians and other fraudsters cream off for themselves for masks, test kits and injections etc over the pandemic?

We are now all too familiar with the stories of fraud and corruption around Covid relief funds.

From here a month ago:

The Great Grift: How billions in COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wasted | AP News

“An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. The loss represents 10 percent of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has disbursed in pandemic aid.”

That’s a lot of fraud and waste – the only surprise is the low figure of 10% for government waste of tax-payer dollars – or more accurately, federal debt monetized by Federal Reserve issuance of fiat currency debt. It is usually a lot higher.

Watchdog calls out the government's most ridiculous spending (nypost.com)

All par for the course with the omnibus spending bills for trillions that politicians have an hour to read before voting on. (Legislation drafted by lobbyists and proof read by staffers).

Some agencies stand out as key enablers of fraud. Hiawatha Warren’s Small Business Agency is one.

Fraudsters potentially stole over $200 billion in Covid relief aid, watchdog says | CNN Business

“New YorkCNN — The Small Business Administration distributed more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent Covid-19 relief funds, according to a federal watchdog.”

(See how I used two “Trusted News Initiative” (TNI) propaganda sites to demonstrate impartiality. I will try to keep doing it?)

Not a TNI source.. woops - the Gateway Pundit has published an article by Wayne Root, pointing a finger at the Biden crime cartel and its possible manipulation of prices of test kits for personal gain.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/wayne-root-crim%60e-century-did-joe-biden-his/

“.. last year the Biden administration bought over 300 million test kits from a Chinese company. And then they came back and quickly bought 100 million more. That’s 400 million Covid test kits.”

A Chinese company. For test kits that we know deliver false positives and are entirely useless. Why would you think that a Chinese company was a quality supplier? What quality controls were applied? Why weren’t US or European companies used? Perhaps this provides a clue:

How Much Do At-Home COVID-19 Tests Cost From These Top Retailers? (yahoo.com)

“COVID-19 tests can be expensive — many retail for around $10-$12 per test. However, these tests most often come in packs of two, which brings your out-of-pocket expense to around $20-$24. "

“.. if you are insured by a group health plan or health insurance company, the federal government is requiring these insurers to cover the cost of eight at-home COVID-19 tests, per covered family member, per month. “

So, keep that 10-12 buck per test, retail, in mind, Also bear in mind, test kits were Federally mandated with enforced payment by the insurers – who will, of course, recover this cost from insurance premia everybody pays.

That’s not Wayne Root’s point though. He is highlighting the test kits bought from China.

“A fan of my national radio and TV shows contacted me. He is in the business of importing medical supplies. More specifically he imported Covid test kits from a Chinese company. He paid $1 per test kit for 100,000 kits at a time.”

“.. the entire contract and price was disclosed in the media last year. Guess what the Biden administration paid for 400 million test kits? $1.3 billion dollars.

That’s at least an overpayment of $900 million dollars of taxpayer money.”

Still looks cheap compared to the 10-12 dollar kits charged to insurance companies by order of the Federal government, right? So.. the scam is ten to 12 times larger for domestically supplied kits?

This is just one example of the potential for fraud at the Federal or State level.

Here is an example from Europe:

EU silence over Pfizer COVID contract talks is problem that won't go away -watchdog | Reuters

“European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s silence about her dealings with drugmaker Pfizer (PFE.N) leading to the EU's biggest COVID-19 vaccine contract is hurting public trust and is a problem that will not go away, its ombudsman said.

“We need to hear what went on, otherwise it’s going to drag on,” Emily O’Reilly said in an interview, pointing to the EU public prosecutor's investigation of the bloc's acquisition of vaccines and the European parliament's COVID committee's plans to hold more hearings on the issue. "So it just won't go away."

How big a problem and how endemic in the EU? This from last year.

Unused doses in the top 8 EU countries - by Peter Halligan (substack.com)

Over a quarter of a billion unused doses a year ago. 746 unused per 100,000 people.

The latest available data shows that the US did not use 308 million C19 doses out of almost a billion shipped and the EU did not use 486 million out of almost 1.5 billion doses shipped.

Who can forget the shenanigans of Gavin Newsom and his contract for masks from a Chinese bus manufacturer? This from 2020.

Gov. Newsom faces scrutiny over coronavirus face-mask deal - CalMatters

Updated (a little) here:

Chinese firm will reimburse $247.5 million in controversial mask deal, contract shows (yahoo.com)

Neither Newson nor von der Leyen had to go through any standard procurement procedures like competitive bidding or key performance metrics – nothing.

ZERO checks and balances to ensure fair price or quality assurance. (That is, they engages in corrupt business practices).

The mask madness was not restricted to Newsom. Here is a story from Germany:

Germany’s mask mandate goes up in smoke – it will burn 800 million masks that are past their “expiry date”. Same goes for billions of useless and expired injection doses? (substack.com)

So, that’s each of the pieces of C19 kit – masks, tests and injections – that were not subject to any procurement controls, but were instead left to “emergency powers” granted to politicians.

Remember this story about selling off unused C19 equipment at pennies in the dollar in New York? The tax payer pays full whack, scrap dealers pay 1%.

(100) Final Day of Fire Sale of unused C19 equipment in New York City! Previous sales of all kinds of protective gear and equipment sold for less than half a cent on the purchased dollar cost!! (substack.com)

All that 400 billion siphoned off the 4.2 trillion covid relief bill.

Now factor in the staff costs to administer all those useless masks, test kits and lethal injections. Each has to be manufactured, packaged, shipped, administered, processed, analyses – and disposed of – into oceans mostly.

This is what happens when big government – (the swamp, the Great Reset, whatever label is favoured by the Maoist/Marxist/Cult of Moloch at the current time)  - big government requires big taxes and big corruption.

The tactic is to commit the crimes – all the way up to the most heinous – and see if you get away with it. No prosecution = innocence, right, so no harm, right? Wrong, it shows up in the steady accumulation of debt via persistent annual fiscal deficits.

Onwards

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