State Auditors Uncover $5.7 Billion in Fraud and Waste Across 28 States – RedState
For years, fraud was considered a right-wing talking point by the Trump administration. A new report from state finance officials makes that claim harder to ignore.
Across 28 states, auditors say they identified and stopped $5.7 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in a single year.
These findings cover Medicaid eligibility systems, local government budgets, payroll controls, and nonprofit oversight. The money didn’t disappear into thin air. It was tracked, documented, and shut down once someone chose to watch it.
The State Financial Officers Foundation’s 2025 Monitoring Report presents what 40 state treasurers, auditors and comptrollers say they discovered after studying local government eligibility systems, payment flows and spending. The document puts numbers on the page.
“In 2025, SFOF members: Protected more than $28 billion in public funds. Stopped approximately $5.7 billion in waste, fraud and abuse. Oversaw $22.3 billion in investment income and unclaimed property returned directly to citizens.”
The report does not characterize the entire $28 billion as fraud. It isolates $5.7 billion in arrested waste, fraud and abuse, separating it from the $22.3 billion in investment income and unclaimed property returned to citizens.
But $5.7 billion in one year across 28 states is no accident. This is what appears when someone finally asks where the money really went.
For example, in Florida, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis’ office identified spending levels that no one had seriously investigated before.
“In just five months, his office identified a staggering $1.86 billion in local government overspending. »
This money was not hidden. It was simply not questioned.
In Kentucky, auditors took direct aim at Medicaid eligibility checks.
“Discovered more than $836 million in taxpayer-funded payments made without benefiting eligible Kentucky beneficiaries due to systemic eligibility and audit failures within the program.”
Different condition. Different program. Same result. When surveillance tightened, the dollars surfaced.
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Other funds were also found in North Carolina: Auditor Dave Boliek discovered more than $1 billion in unpaid wages due to long-term vacancies in the state. In Utah, Auditor Tina Cannon identified more than $518 million in fraud, waste and abuse within agencies and nonprofits receiving state and federal funds.
This is not malware. It’s not just one state. This is not just one category of expenses. It’s a model.
In his letter to Vice President JD Vance, SFOF President OJ Oleka wrote that the group’s members are “allies already on the battlefield” and are ready to help the administration protect taxpayer dollars.
For years, Democrats and much of the political left have treated the Trump administration’s warnings of fraud as ideological posturing. But audits are not ideological. If billions are surfacing in state systems once officials decide to take a look, it is willful blindness to dismiss this as a right-wing fixation.
Editor’s note: The 2026 midterm elections will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both houses of Congress.
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