Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Fraudulent Hands in the K–12 Classroom Cookie Jar

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Fraudulent Hands in the K–12 Classroom Cookie Jar · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: But I do think it's true that they are not
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  Speaker 1: with Israel and what we do with Israel and our
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  Speaker 1: keep our president from being assassinated.
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  Speaker 2: That's the thing.
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  Speaker 3: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 4: Good Friday morning. Nice to have you with us on
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  Speaker 4: the forty seven Morning Update. And we've got a shocking
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  Speaker 4: report out from the Trump administration. They have now found
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  Speaker 4: more than two hundred and twenty five million an alleged
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  Speaker 4: K through twelve education fraud. We're talking about open books.
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  Speaker 4: Have identified nearly ninety cases of embezzlement, fake invoices, and
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  Speaker 4: inflated enrollment numbers just so local districts can get paid.
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  Speaker 2: We have the receipts, and we have it all for
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  Speaker 2: you in just a moment.
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  Speaker 4: But before we get to that, I want to talk
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  Speaker 4: seven to two Patriot Today, it's a forty seven Morning
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  Speaker 4: Update and it starts right now. Story number one, President
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  Speaker 4: Donald Trump giving us another example of why the Trump
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  Speaker 4: administration says rooting out government waste, government fraud and abuse
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  Speaker 4: isn't just a campaign slogan, it's a governing priority of
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  Speaker 4: this administration. There is new explosive reports out that allege
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  Speaker 4: that investigators have uncovered more than two hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 4: five million and suspected K through twelve education fraud, adding
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  Speaker 4: to what the administration says a growing list of cases
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  Speaker 4: where taxpayer dollars intended for America's children instead end up
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  Speaker 4: enriching bad actors. Now, it's also important to make one
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  Speaker 4: major distinction right at the beginning of this conversation. Now,
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  Speaker 4: these are allegations and investigative findings, not criminal convictions yet.
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  Speaker 4: But if even a fraction of these allegations are ultimately
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  Speaker 4: proven true, taxpayers have every reason to be enraged by
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  Speaker 4: the stealing of your dollars. And it also explains why
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  Speaker 4: public education is failing our young people. Think about this
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  Speaker 4: money and what it was supposed to do. It was
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  Speaker 4: supposed to buy textbooks. It was supposed to help children
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  Speaker 4: learn to read, to deal with learning disabilities and support.
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  Speaker 4: It was supposed to fund special education services for a
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  Speaker 4: multitude of children. It was supposed to pay for classroom technology, tutoring,
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  Speaker 4: even transportation, school meals, and resources for the teachers. Instead,
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  Speaker 4: according to investigators nationwide, millions and millions and millions of
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  Speaker 4: dollars have been diverted through fraudulent schemes that were easy
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  Speaker 4: to catch. Clearly, the school district's choosing to look the
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  Speaker 4: other way, and that is exactly why President Trump has
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  Speaker 4: repeatedly argued that Washington needs far more oversight of taxpayer spending.
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  Speaker 4: And let's be clear, throughout Trump's second administration, he's been
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  Speaker 4: fighting fraud and it's become a centerpiece of his domestic agenda.
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  Speaker 4: Now it doesn't matter what type of fraud it is.
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  Speaker 4: Could be medicaid fraud, Medicare fraud, pandemic relief abuse, unemployment
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  Speaker 4: insurance scams, even immigration related benefits fraud.
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  Speaker 2: Now it's hardcore education fraud.
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  Speaker 4: The White House has consistently argued that billions of taxpayer
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  Speaker 4: dollars have been lost because of well, the previous administration's
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  Speaker 4: failure to aggressively investigate and not only investigate, but prosecute
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  Speaker 4: the egregious financial abuse. The Administration's message is simple. Every
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  Speaker 4: dollar stolen from a taxpayer is a dollar stolen from
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  Speaker 4: hardworking Americans, and every dollar stolen from a classroom is
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  Speaker 4: a dollar stolen from a child and their future. Now,
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  Speaker 4: according to the investigators, many of these education fraud cases
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  Speaker 4: involved the misuse of federal education grants, then fake vendors,
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  Speaker 4: inflated invoices, duplicate billing, false reimbursement requests, conflicts of interests,
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  Speaker 4: and then various schemes they say, designed to siphon public
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  Speaker 4: money away from the students and into the private pockets
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  Speaker 4: of corrupt individuals. Now, this is exactly the type of
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  Speaker 4: fraud schemes that inspector generals have warned Congress about for
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  Speaker 4: years now. One of the main problems is that whenever
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  Speaker 4: the federal government rapidly increases spending, and we've seen that
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  Speaker 4: happen countless times with public education, while oversight and this
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  Speaker 4: could be on purpose by the left, have often struggled
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  Speaker 4: to keep pace. We saw that, by the way, clearly
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  Speaker 4: during the COVID relief, we saw it with unemployment benefits,
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  Speaker 4: we saw it with small business relief, and investigators now
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  Speaker 4: say education funding has become another area requiring far greater accountability.
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  Speaker 4: The Trump administration argues this isn't simply about recovering money.
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  Speaker 4: It's also about restoring confidence the government can actually protect
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  Speaker 4: taxpayer dollars because, let's be honest, Americans don't mind investing
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  Speaker 4: in education. Polling has shown that over and over again.
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  Speaker 4: And also we know that most parents and grandparents wanting credible,
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  Speaker 4: quality schools. Most taxpayers are happy to support children's futures.
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  Speaker 4: What frustrates people is discovering that when the money that
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  Speaker 4: they've given that was intended for students may instead be
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  Speaker 4: well financing straight up fraud and corruption. There's also another
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  Speaker 4: aspect of this. Imagine being a teacher buying classroom supplies
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  Speaker 4: out of your own pocket while someone else is stealing
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  Speaker 4: hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars through fraudulent
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  Speaker 4: contracts or fake billing or duplicate billing. And that's what
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  Speaker 4: makes stories like this so infuriating. Teachers often spend their
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  Speaker 4: own money on pencils, paper, classroom decorations, science projects, and
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  Speaker 4: even books. Investigators are alleging enormous sums disappeared through fraudulent
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  Speaker 4: activity as well. President Trump has repeatedly said the US
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  Speaker 4: government shouldn't automatically ask taxpayers for more money until it
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  Speaker 4: proves it can responsibly manage the money that it already
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  Speaker 4: takes in that already has, And stories like this, while
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  Speaker 4: they strengthen the president's argument, supporters of President Trump also
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  Speaker 4: point to the broader and pattern here. For years, federal
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  Speaker 4: watchdogs have warned about weak internal controls. They've warned about
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  Speaker 4: insufficient auditing, they have warned about outdated accounting systems, and
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  Speaker 4: they've warned about agencies failing to verify where grant money
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  Speaker 4: actually even goes. And that's where the fraudsers come in,
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  Speaker 4: and they exploit exactly these weaknesses. Well, the administration says
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  Speaker 4: it's Crackdown as design to change that by increasing investigations,
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  Speaker 4: as well as expanding forensic audits, coordinating more closely with
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  Speaker 4: inspector generals, and pursuing both civil and criminal enforcement when
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  Speaker 4: it's appropriate. And that extends beyond education. The administration has
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  Speaker 4: highlighted investigations also into healthcare, fraud, benefits, fraud, procurement, fraud,
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  Speaker 4: disaster relieve fraud, and organized criminal schemes targeting federals and
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  Speaker 4: the criminals they've gotten insanely rich off of all of this,
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  Speaker 4: officials argue that recovering Stone taxpayer dollars not only helped
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  Speaker 4: reduce waste, but also it does something important without cutting
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  Speaker 4: legitimate services.
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  Speaker 2: That's an important distinction.
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  Speaker 4: The goal, according to the Trump administration, isn't taking resources
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  Speaker 4: away from students. It's making sure the money actually reaches
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  Speaker 4: those students at all, because every fraudulent dollar means fewer
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  Speaker 4: legitimate resources are available for the classroom and for the individual.
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  Speaker 4: The broader political debate here is also significant because for years,
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  Speaker 4: many in Washington have responded to challenges in education by
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  Speaker 4: proposing one thing, more money, larger budgets, and President Trump
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  Speaker 4: is arguing now yet again that before we appropriate any
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  Speaker 4: additional funds, much less billions of dollars. It should first
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  Speaker 4: eliminate the fraud, the waste, the abuse that's already deep
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  Speaker 4: entrenched inside of the education system. That's also a message
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  Speaker 4: that is likely to resonate with many taxpayers come to midterms.
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  Speaker 4: After all, if a private company discovered hundreds of millions
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  Speaker 4: of dollars being stolen internally, shareholders wouldn't approve another spending
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  Speaker 4: increase without demanding accountability first. And that's exactly what the
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  Speaker 4: present's advocating for. Government should not operate under a lower standard.
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  Speaker 4: And the other major question is this oversight. How long
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  Speaker 4: do these alleged schemes continue Where warning signs completely ignored
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  Speaker 4: to whistleblowers, raise concerns, where audits delayed, where agencies properly
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  Speaker 4: monitoring grant receipts. These are questions and investigators in Congress
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  Speaker 4: will continue to examine. It's also worth remembering that education
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  Speaker 4: funding involves multiple layers of government. Federal dollars often flow
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  Speaker 4: through state agencies and then to local school districts or
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  Speaker 4: nonprofit organizations. That complexity can create opportunities for fraud if
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  Speaker 4: overtite breaks down at any stage, and.
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  Speaker 2: Clearly it did.
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  Speaker 4: That's one of the reasons that Trump and his investigators
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  Speaker 4: say it's important that transparency be shown. The administration argues
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  Speaker 4: that technology, data analytics, and stronger financial controls can actually
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  Speaker 4: help deter suspicious transactions much earlier. So instead of discovering
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  Speaker 4: fraud at this level years later, the Trump administration won
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  Speaker 4: systems capable of identifying unusual spending patterns in real time. Now,
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  Speaker 4: for taxpayers, this story touches on something much larger than education.
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  Speaker 4: It really goes down to the issue of trust. Americans
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  Speaker 4: work hard for their paychecks and they should demand that
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  Speaker 4: a government and expect that government is going to be
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  Speaker 4: a responsible steward of the taxes they send to Washington.
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  Speaker 4: But when headlines reveal hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud,
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  Speaker 4: while confidence disappears, doesn't just a road. And that's why
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  Speaker 4: the administration says accountability isn't optional, it's a mandatory. A
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  Speaker 4: cent every fraudulent scheme uncovered sends two messages. First, investigators
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  Speaker 4: are finding the problem that need fixing, and second, potential
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  Speaker 4: fraudsters are being warned that enforcement is increasing. Now, whether
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  Speaker 4: these investigations ultimately result in indictments, conviction settlements and recovered
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  Speaker 4: funds remains to be seen, but one thing is clear.
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  Speaker 4: Trump administration intends to make fraud enforcement a defining part
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  Speaker 4: of its governing philosophy. President Trump is repeatedly argued that
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  Speaker 4: before asking Americans to sacrifice more, Washington must clean up
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  Speaker 4: its own books, and that is exactly what they found
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  Speaker 4: from this investigation.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 3: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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  Speaker 3: and we will see you back here tomorrow