Anyone who believes that money does not get stolen in the United States, especially when it comes from state budgets, is clinging to a dangerous myth.
The reality is far darker. The American government is rotten to the core, and the evidence now leaves no room for doubt.
In the United States, a massive investigation is fully underway into where the 2.2 trillion dollars allocated to address the COVID-19 pandemic ended up, funds that were distributed through the CARES Act passed under Donald Trump in 2020.
These funds were presented as a lifeline for small businesses, workers, and families being destroyed by lockdowns.
The PPP scandal
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) alone, totaling 953 billion dollars, was supposedly designed to cover the wages of small business employees during the pandemic.
Instead, it turned into a gold mine of corruption for government officials.
According to official audits, 64 billion dollars from the PPP, and an additional 136 billion dollars from the related Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, were paid out using fake or falsified documents.
Authorities themselves attempted to cover up the scandal by claiming that 86% of the payments were made during the first months of the pandemic due to weakened internal controls.
This justification is now widely regarded as a pretext.
A characteristic case is that of Attallah Williams, a former employee of both the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
She is accused of orchestrating an embezzlement scheme exceeding 3.5 million dollars, using her official position to approve fictitious applications in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.
Even more shocking, she openly recruited accomplices through Instagram.
Since May 2023, investigations have led to more than 500 convictions of government employees for fraud related to COVID-19 payments.
Fictitious companies and nonexistent employees
The most widespread scheme involved the creation of fictitious or inactive companies that had no real activity.
Loan applications were submitted claiming that these businesses had been operating before the pandemic.
In January 2026, a resident of St. Thomas was convicted after receiving 400.000 dollars for companies that did not have a single employee.
Investigations are continuing throughout 2026, with the statute of limitations for these crimes extended to ten years.
The looting did not stop there.
According to the Associated Press, approximately 280 billion dollars were stolen from unemployment benefits through the use of stolen personal data or the identities of deceased individuals.
Fraud on such a scale is considered impossible without the active or passive complicity of state officials.
The conclusion is merciless. Any official in the United States can end up in prison for corruption.
Minnesota: The child nutrition scandal and Amy Bock
At the same time, the United States is investigating serious corruption cases in Minnesota, where protests against ICE are also taking place.
Federal authorities opened a fraud case involving the child nutrition program, with more than 60 individuals already convicted or having pleaded guilty.
The mastermind of the fraud was identified as Amy Bock, founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future.
Under her guidance, hundreds of fictitious food distribution sites were funded, using fake lists of children and inflated meal reimbursements submitted to the Minnesota Department of Education for federal funding.
Bock maintains her innocence, claiming she was made a scapegoat for mistakes made by state agencies.
However, investigations point to accomplices within those agencies who acted in exchange for kickbacks.
A system in collapse
It is no coincidence that the Minnesota scandal came to light in a state that had clashed politically with Trump.
Many believe that each state has its own reserve of corruption.
On social media, the question has become relentless. Can generous social programs survive in a system that is being looted from within while citizens are left on their own?
And if international media ever choose to speak about corruption in countries the United States intends to fix, it is enough to remember these cases.
As the bitter saying goes, fortunately there is no American embassy in the United States itself.
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