Vice President JD Vance‘s fraud efforts might not be as grand as he’s made them out to be.
In March, Vance, 42, was made head of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud by President Donald Trump, and at the Republican midterm convention earlier this month, Vance declared, “We found $250 billion of fraud just since the president made me the fraud czar.”
However, The New York Times reported on Sunday, September 27, that “some of the numbers Mr. Vance and his task force have promoted are overstated or lack specificity, and rely on temporary pauses in funding as well as cases and actions that long predated President Trump’s second term.”
The outlet reported that the “so-called fraud ledger” the White House published in August on their website listed billions of dollars in fraud “uncovered,” “stopped,” and “enforced” since January 2025, long before the task force was established.
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“Fraud uncovered represents total estimated fraud identified through data analysis. Fraud stopped counts the dollars saved annually through administrative actions such as provider suspensions and rule changes,” per the ledger. “Fraud enforced covers dollars recovered through indictments, settlements, and civil monetary penalties. All figures reflect the period since January 2025.”
However, The New York Times explained that the figures are hard to verify because there’s no breakdown available. A senior White House official told them the task force didn’t itemize fraud schemes and actions to avoid hurting current law enforcement investigations.
Additionally, the outlet accused Vance and his task force of taking credit for fraud efforts that previous administrations and local governments actually worked on.
One example is that the White House said that the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, established in April, “took enforcement action in schemes totaling over $340 million in its first week alone.”
However, the department’s own announcement claimed almost $280 million represented those sentenced in fraud cases uncovered and tried months before Trump took office for the second time or the task force was enacted, per the publication.
This story JD Vance and His Fraud Task Force Questioned for Lack of Transparency, Stealing Credit in Findings first appeared on First For Money. Follow First For Money on Yahoo so you don’t miss what’s coming next.