OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, said relaxed controls during the Biden administration opened the door to widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars. 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.'

"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 controls were turned off. 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."

What the Right Is Saying

Republicans argue the scale of fraud during the Biden era represents a fundamental failure of oversight. SFOF's first-ever Oversight Report 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.

"We say that fraud actually has an industry in this country," Oleka said. "What we're trying to do is root out the fraud industrial complex that exists within our government programs." He pointed to weak eligibility requirements during Biden's time in office — and sometimes no requirements at all — as key factors.

President Donald Trump tapped Vice President JD Vance to lead a nationwide War on Fraud earlier this year, stemming from the Minnesota "Feeding Our Future" scheme, which allegedly defrauded the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Oleka praised these efforts in a February letter to the White House, writing that SFOF members are "allies already on the battlefield."

What the Left Is Saying

Democrats have pointed to pandemic-era emergency measures as necessary responses to an unprecedented economic crisis. The Biden administration oversaw historic efforts to distribute relief quickly during a period of intense economic uncertainty, with supporters arguing that speed was essential to preventing deeper economic collapse.

Critics on the left note that fraud occurs across administrations and point out that some anti-fraud efforts can themselves create barriers for legitimate claimants who need assistance. Some progressive voices have argued that stricter verification requirements often disproportionately affect lower-income applicants who may lack ready access to documentation.

What the Numbers Show

A House committee estimated the Biden-Harris administration failed to recoup $200 billion in fraudulent COVID-era loans. The scale of alleged fraud has been substantial across multiple states.

Ohio: Hundreds of home health companies sharing addresses and operating out of vacant properties billed the federal government more than $250 million in Medicaid spending, according to reports cited by SFOF.

Minnesota: The "Feeding Our Future" case involved alleged fraud totaling hundreds of millions in federal nutrition program funds.

California: A multi-million dollar hospice fraud scheme was uncovered.

Maine: A health services company faces accusations from a whistleblower of misusing millions in Medicaid funds since December, according to the source article.

SFOF's 2025 report documented that state financial officers generated or returned another $22.3 billion through investment earnings and unclaimed property programs.

The Bottom Line

State treasurers and financial officers are leading efforts to strengthen oversight and reclaim funds for taxpayers. SFOF is working with House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on bipartisan efforts to address fraud beyond the Trump administration.

Oleka has advocated for embedding anti-fraud measures through executive order so they persist across future administrations. "You've got a system that is allowing you to do the things that you're doing, but it's clearly unethical, it's clearly wrong," he said.

The White House War on Fraud task force, led by Vance, represents the current administration's response. What happens next will likely depend on whether Congress passes legislation or whether executive actions are deemed sufficient to prevent future fraud at the scale seen during the COVID-era programs.