Federal authorities said they have identified about $270 million in possible fraud linked to student aid programs, the news coming as President Donald Trump’s administration continues its crackdown to protect taxpayer money.
The U.S. Treasury Department told Fox Business on Monday about the suspicious financial activity officials said was possibly linked to fraud targeting those federal programs.
“Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has referred the findings to federal investigators for further review,” the outlet said.
In July, the FinCEN issued an alert to financial institutions regarding fraudsters creating schemes to target the programs, Breitbart News reported:
FinCEN said fraud rings will use stolen and fraudulent identities to create “ghost students,” as well as other tactics, to enroll in colleges and universities and steal student aid funds. The agency said the schemes result in losses to the federal student aid programs and can even disenfranchise real students by making it harder for them to enroll in classes because of the fraudulently enrolled fake students.
“Every dollar stolen from Federal student aid is a dollar taken from taxpayers and deserving students,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.
In a statement prior to the Fox report on Monday, Bessent said, “The Trump administration will not tolerate criminals who exploit government programs for personal gain. Treasury is working with financial institutions and law enforcement to identify these fraud schemes, recover stolen funds, and hold those responsible accountable.”
Bessent wrote in a social media post on Saturday that at his agency “we follow the money,” noting that “over the past year, Treasury returned $175 million in payments that would have gone to deceased individuals and expanded Do Not Pay access to 99 percent of federal programs.”
He also said, “Fraud does not stop at our borders, and neither do we. Overseas scam networks and cartels that prey on elderly Americans with fraud schemes are now sanctioned by the United States. Treasury is also making it easier for those with firsthand knowledge of fraud to expose it by accepting confidential whistleblower tips and offering cash rewards. If these fraudsters want to turn on each other, we welcome the assistance.”
Trump’s administration has also been working to end waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending, per Breitbart News.
