Labor Dept. watchdog uncovers nearly $1 billion in lost COVID unemployment cash
WIBC 9AM-Noon Podcast
WIBC
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Nobody cares for you like family. |
| 0:04.3 | Family heating and air. |
| 0:06.2 | When you call to have your home or businesses heating and air serviced, what do you expect from them? |
| 0:10.0 | The salesman in a colorful truck? |
| 0:11.7 | Or do you expect a highly trained expert with your best intentions in mind? |
| 0:14.6 | The answer is obvious. |
| 0:15.7 | Call the company that treats you like family. |
| 0:17.4 | My name's Malian. |
| 0:18.0 | I look forward to answering your call. |
| 0:19.4 | Family heating and air conditioning is your trusted local independent American standard heating and air conditioning dealer. |
| 0:23.8 | Nobody cares for you like family. Family heating and air. |
| 0:33.9 | I know an inspector general. In fact, I know an Inspector General. |
| 0:37.9 | In fact, I know an Inspector General pretty well. |
| 0:41.0 | And every time I ask him, what do you do at work? |
| 0:43.1 | He always says, ah, seeking out waste, fraud, and abuse. |
| 0:45.8 | That's what Inspector Generals do. |
| 0:47.1 | That's what they do. |
| 0:48.4 | And the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Inspector General says nearly $1 billion in COVID-era unemployment benefits are still |
| 0:57.7 | sitting unused, which means fraud, right? |
| 1:02.0 | They loaded up a bunch of money on prepaid debit cards to the tune of $720 million. |
| 1:10.2 | And they issued those during the pandemic. |
| 1:12.8 | And they have not been cashed. |
... |
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