Inside the largest public fraud scandal in US history—how novice, experienced, and professional fraudsters from around the world stole hundreds of billions of US pandemic relief dollars.
"Part history, part thriller, part biography," Left Holding the Bag is a compelling inside account from former inspector general and pandemic watchdog Bob Westbrooks. Part cop/part auditor, Westbrooks takes you behind the scenes as he chronicles how Washington responded to its COVID test and how American taxpayers lost roughly $500 billion to pandemic relief fraud and waste.
With a mask-wearing nation under stay-at-home orders while a deadly virus ravaged the population, during PPE shortages and people dying alone in ICUs, before vaccines and immunity and time reopened the American way of life after three years, the federal government, through six hastily written COVID-19 relief laws provided the largest infusion of emergency relief spending in US history.
The federal government distributed an unfathomable $5 trillion, through a jumble of federal programs in the hundreds, to a menagerie of recipients in the millions. Some federal programs were poorly designed and easily exploited by unscrupulous operators. To fraudsters, these programs were large, soft, and easy targets. Competing crises soon distracted the nation, while homegrown and global pirates looted federal pandemic relief programs and plundered roughly $500 billion in relief funds—and left American taxpayers holding the bag.
This book takes you back to this extraordinary time, the federal government’s unprecedented response, and the exemplary work of the inspectors general and their federal law enforcement partners as they followed the money, flagged fraud risks, disrupted fraud schemes, and chased bad guys through a stunning true crime wave.
Westbrooks provides a blueprint to help ensure this never happens again.
2023 Global Book Silver Award Winner
💎“Fraud happens even in the best of times. These were not the best of times”
✍ “Left Holding The Bag” by Bob Westbrooks
This book is, in a word, a 'Pensieve' (I couldn't resist the Harry Potter reference, LOL). It unfolds as a captivating journey through the labyrinthine corridors of Bob's memory, where each twist and turn reveals a whimsical snapshot of the intricate dance between fraud, oversight, and compliance within pandemic federal programs with a touch of politics.
NKLinkedIn "Mr. Westbrooks has performed a vital public service again. His work to stand up the PRAC under daunting conditions was impressive, as are its performance and results. I saw much of the government’s pandemic response at close hand, and can attest that his book is a dependable accounting of what happened - the effective, the ineffective, the inspiring, and the maddening. And it’s an excellent first resource for the next crisis response."
IGAmazon"This book does an excellent job of presenting the COVID pandemic by weaving personal and historical narratives. Mr. Westbrooks had a front row seat to one of the most profound historical moments of our time, and the personal stories he provides are highly relatable.
The bulk of the book provides well-written context for the insightful recommendations he provides at the end, but it is not just scene-setting. Through expressive language that still remains accessible to the general reader, he provides an insider's look behind-the-curtain of what was happening in Washington, and he does so without pulling any partisan punches.
LHAmazonThe author clearly and succinctly lays out the key facts surrounding the rollout and oversight of trillions of dollars in emergency pandemic response funding. From the initial CARES Act to the subsequent spending bills, Mr Westbrooks
provides a detailed account of the various public policy issues including failures by federal agencies in distributing an unprecedented volume of funding. Best of all, he does all of this in true in inspector general fashion by sticking to the facts and avoiding the political swamp. This is a must read for anyone in government, anyone who helps shape public policy, and anyone who cares how their tax dollars are spent.
SSAmazon