As pervasive fraud schemes continue to sweep across the U.S., a group that seeks to preserve economic freedoms at the state level says that former ‘s policies were a main driver for the proliferation of the issue.
OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, said “relaxed controls” during the last administration opened the door to widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars. And state treasurers are now leading the fight to strengthen oversight and reclaim funds for the American people.
“This isn’t a partisan statement, but it is a true statement to say that this kind of exploded during the Biden administration,” Oleka told Fox News Digital. “A lot of the . A lot of states who have the philosophy that more government is good just simply turned on the spigots and allowed anybody to get access to any benefit.”
Speaking from SFOF’s annual conference in Clearwater, Florida, Oleka said fraud has become so deeply embedded in government programs that it’s now “a feature in the system, not a bug.”
for 2025 found that affiliated state financial officers protected and returned $28 billion to taxpayers last year, uncovering $5.7 billion in waste, fraud and abuse. They, meanwhile, generated or returned another $22.3 billion through investment earnings and unclaimed property programs.
“We say that fraud actually has an industry in this country,” Oleka said. “What were trying to do is root out the that exists within our government programs. Thats the biggest challenge.”
He pointed to weak eligibility requirements during Biden’s time in office â and sometimes no requirements at all â exploding the instances of fraud.
“Then practically anybody can have access to the benefits â people who dont need them, people who dont deserve them, people who arent even eligible for them,” he lamented.
President Donald Trump this year tapped Vice President to lead a nationwide “War on Fraud.” It stemmed from the highly scrutinized Minnesota “Feeding Our Future” scheme, which allegedly defrauded the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Oleka praised the Trump administrations anti-fraud efforts, and in a February letter to the White House told Vance that SFOF members are “allies already on the battlefield” ready to help protect taxpayer dollars.
“The beauty of whats happening now is youve got the Vice President and the task force and our state financial officers rooting to get this stuff out,” he said. “Thats the goal: you get it out root and branch, you stop it from being in the system, and you make a benefit system that actually works again for the American people.”
But, he said, future administrations need to continue the crack-down if Americans want to see lasting change.
The SFOF is also working directly with members of Congress, including Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and state officials to ensure fraud is addressed beyond the Trump administration, according to Oleka.
He also would like to see some of the changes cemented through executive order.
“Youve got a system that is allowing you to do the things that youre doing, but its clearly unethical, its clearly wrong, and you saw a lot of this actually take off during the Biden-era,” Oleka said.
Massive fraud was recently exposed in California, and Ohio, where he said Democratic leaders failed to act because they “don’t have the political will to stop the fraud.”
A multi-million dollar hospice fraud scheme in California was uncovered, while a Maine health services company was accused by a whistleblower of misusing millions in Medicaid funds in December. In Columbus, Ohio, hundreds of home health companies that shared the same addresses and operated out of vacant or poorly maintained properties were found to have billed the federal government more than $250 million in
“Weve seen it in Minnesota, weve seen it in California, Maine and Ohio, all across the country,” Oleka s
