Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano just helped uncover nearly $100 million in federal payments sent to dead people — and he’s promising the fraud-busting effort is only getting started.
The Treasury Department announced Tuesday a new government-wide payment verification system designed to stop payments to deceased individuals before they leave federal coffers.
The numbers are staggering.
Treasury screened over 885 million payments totaling approximately $2.77 trillion as part of the new verification process, according to the department’s press release.
“The screening has identified more than 4,900 payments worth approximately $99 million that were associated with deceased payees.”
Those payments were returned to the originating federal agencies for review before any funds were disbursed — a preventive strike that saved taxpayers millions.
Bisignano joined CNBC’s Squawk on the Street Tuesday morning to discuss the crackdown.
“We’re stopping it, and this is great work of the vice president and the Treasury secretary, and in cooperation across the whole administration,” Bisignano said when asked how the fraud was uncovered.
He credited President Donald Trump’s leadership for making the inter-agency partnership possible.
“Fraud, waste, and abuse has been a platform we’ve been running on since we got here, and it’s teamwork that you see that never happened in any administration,” Bisignano said.
“It’s only under this president’s great leadership are we able to get that type of partnership across SSA, Treasury, and all the rest of the government,” he added. “And Treasury is the place where payments have been stopped to not pay them where they shouldn’t have gone.”
Bisignano made clear the battle to root out fraud is a never-ending one.
“We’re going to stay at it… We’ve done a lot of work in SSA to eliminate erroneous payments; Treasury and the whole government’s locked down on it. So I think you can count on us continuing to drive out fraud, waste, and abuse in many avenues. And you know this will be a lifelong journey here,” he said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised Bisignano’s work in a statement to Breitbart News.
“With decades of experience leading some of America’s most successful companies, Frank Bisignano has brought proven executive leadership, operational excellence, and a results-driven mindset to the IRS,” Bessent said. “He has done a terrific job delivering better service to taxpayers, eliminating waste, modernizing operations, and ensuring the agency works for the American people.”
During the CNBC interview, Bisignano also dismissed what he called “really bad journalism” from the Wall Street Journal, which ran an article Monday claiming Bisignano “Spied on Colleagues When He Worked at JPMorgan.”
“That is an unnamed source. There are no named sources in the article. My record stands for itself,” he said. “Charlie [Scharf] and Mike Cavanaugh, all still great friends of mine. This is really bad journalism.”
“None of it’s true, ever, in my whole career,” he added, calling out “political reasons” driving the “bad journalism.”
Bisignano’s lawyer Courtney Forrest refuted the claims in a statement to the Journal, saying Bisignano “never directed anyone to look through any employee’s or executive’s communications or engaged in any form of surveillance.”
She also told the outlet that JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon “never asked, encouraged, or suggested that Mr. Bisignano leave JPMorgan” and that Bisignano left on his own accord to lead First Data.
