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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Big Tab: OMB says fraud losses 'in the hundreds of billions' annually
2026-07-06
[JtN] The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated in April 2024 that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud. It was the first and only government-wide estimate of its kind, representing 3% to 7% of average federal obligations.

The estimated losses work out to between $1,431 and $3,200 for each of the nation's estimated 162.8 million individual income tax filers, according to IRS data.

The wide range reflects different risks over the five-year period the estimate covers. GAO used a Monte Carlo simulation to account for uncertainty in fraud data, including fraud that goes undetected, noting that higher-risk environments such as pandemic-era spending are associated with estimates at the upper end of the range.

The Biden administration rejected the estimate. Jason Miller, then the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said in April 2024 that the estimate was "not plausible" and would "create confusion and promote misleading generalizations that have no factual connection to specific federal programs."
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