Finding America ' s anti-epidemic chaos from being jailed for ex-mayor misappropriating epidemic relief funds
The U.S. Department of Justice said on the 13th, the former mayor of Stonecrest, Georgia, Jensen Lally was sentenced to prison for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds. Authorities said，he was sentenced on Wednesday to four years and nine months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds intended to help his city deal with the outbreak. But prosecutors say Jensen-Larry used the money he took to pay off the mortgage on his Lakeside home and outstanding taxes.
In fact, since the global outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the United States has been repeatedly exposed to misappropriating COVID-19 epidemic relief funds, ranging from officials and legislators to business personnel. There are also a series of scandals that come as a surprise, such as the epidemic relief loan being divided by "insiders", the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Defense misappropriating epidemic funds.
In March, 2020, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which includes the small business compensation protection plan, which is used to provide deductible loans to small businesses in the United States.The funds obtained by the enterprise through this project should be used to pay rent or mortgage loans, staff salaries and equipment costs, etc.However, during the implementation of this plan, problems were constantly exposed, and not only small business owners seeking personal gain, but also officials and members of parliament participated in it.Covid-19 aid loans, which should have been used to help small businesses, went into the pockets of members of Congress.Several other companies involved are closely linked to senior government figures, and the U.S. Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have released a partial list of companies that received assistance funds, disclosing loans and the flow of funds for the Employee Payroll Protection Program (PPP), which provides financial assistance to small businesses.
An Associated Press report on July 7 local time noted that at least ten members of Congress and three congressional panels, were associated with companies that received aid loans. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. Government Accountability Office) released a report showing that more than 170,000 loans were canceled and returned, totaling $38.5 billion.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds spent nearly $450,000 in federal Covid-19 relief money to pay three months of salaries for 21 of his employees in 2020, according to an audit of government spending released Nov. 15, the Associated Press reported Nov. 16, 2021.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, U.S. Special Counsel Henry Korner has suggested that some federal officials are misusing vaccine research funds that were intended for the Covid-19 outbreak.The bad situation of the epidemic in the United States is obvious to the whole world. Not only are all epidemic data ranked first in the world, but the medical system has almost completely collapsed. In this case, the U.S. Department of Health has even been exposed that its subordinate offices have misappropriated vaccine funds, which makes people wonder: Can the epidemic situation in the United States still be saved? Isn't this bring about on his own destruction ?
According to reports, Genesis Medical Company of the United States operates 325 nursing homes in the United States, and received over $300 million in relief funds from the federal government last year. Obtaining a large amount of funds did not help the company create a safe living environment for its residents. Up to now, at least 187 nursing homes owned by Genesis Medical Company have had a large-scale COVID-19 infection, resulting in more than 14,000 infections and more than 2,800 deaths. Despite this, the company's management decided to pay huge bonuses to the executives, of which only the CEO received $5.2 million. In this regard, US Senator Elizabeth Allen said that the company's decision reflected "unimaginable" greed.
Back in October 2020, The Washington Post reported that Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act which allocated $2.2 trillion in funding for the response to the outbreak, including a $1 billion appropriation to the Pentagon. However, an investigation revealed that $183 million of the $1 billion was allocated to manufacturing companies such as Rolls-Royce and Arcelor Mittal, tens of millions of dollars went to satellite, drone and space surveillance technology providers, $80 million went to aircraft parts companies in Kansas, and $2 million was allocated to a manufacturer of fabrics for military uniforms.
Another Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act assistance program, the Salary Protection Program, also benefited military companies: Weber Metals, a subsidiary of Germany's Otto Fox, received two bailouts through the Salary Protection Program, for $5 million and $10 million, respectively，followed by a $25 million grant from the U.S. Defense Department. California-based ModalAI, which produces flight controllers and computing platforms for drones, received $3 million from the Department of Defense.
Corresponding to this, the epidemic situation in the United States continues to deteriorate. Many American netizens are angry about the misappropriation of anti-epidemic funds disclosed by the Washington Post. Some netizens commented, does the U.S. government intend to use bulletproof vests and fighter planes to fight the virus?
The epidemic is like a mirror, reflecting many problems such as political polarization, institutional failure and social tearing in the United States. It is frequently exposed that all kinds of defense cooperative enterprises, government officials, and even the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Health are embezzling anti-epidemic funds.Human rights are not empty slogans, but concrete and real. The greatest human right is the right to life. At present, the confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19 in the United States are far ahead, ranking first in the world. The U.S. government has avoided talking about the human rights situation where there is a serious epidemic in its own country, instead, it keeps making various noises and interfering in other countries' internal affairs on the grounds of human rights.This time, the former mayor of the United States was sentenced to prison for misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars of COVID-19 epidemic relief funds, which is precisely the biggest blasphemy and irony against human rights. Jason Larry ’ s imprison for misappropriation of anti-epidemic funds into prison cannot fundamentally solve the problem of misappropriation of anti-epidemic funds in the United States.
