Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump tasked Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with ensuring that tax dollars are being properly spent.

This includes eliminating fraud within federal welfare programs, something which one former Florida official says could be as much as $520 billion.

Up to half a trillion dollars in welfare fraud

That point was recently made by Andrew McClenahan, who previously helped to identify welfare fraud at the Florida Department of Children and Families' Office of Public Benefits Integrity.

McClenahan currently serves as intergovernmental committee co-chair at the United Council on Welfare Fraud, and he said during an appearance on "The Drill Down" podcast that misuse of entitlements money is rife.

McClenahan mentioned to "The Drill Down" co-host Eric Eggers how "Elon Musk cited a stat that there’s half a trillion dollars."

McClenahan said federal authorities would deny problems exist

"According to the GAO’s own figures, there’s anywhere from $230 billion to $520 billion in fraudulent payments in [social welfare] programs across the board. So, the money is there if it’s looked at," he insisted.

"It was ‘deny, deny, deny’ or try to shift the narrative," McClenahan remarked when Eggers asked what response the former official would get from federal authorities when he identified fraud.

"Before my current role, I ran Florida’s public assistance efforts and program integrity. And when we exposed some of the worst-case fraud in program history, the response was, 'Well yeah, fraud's a problem in Florida,'" McClenahan recalled.

"Until the 2018 Farm Bill, states would receive a bonus for expanding the program and getting more recipients onto public assistance," McClenahan went on to add.

EBT fraud allegedly carried out by Romanian mobsters

Breitbart pointed out that some welfare fraud efforts have been orchestrated by foreign organized crime groups, with one such scheme coming to light in California last year.

According to Los Angeles' KTLA, 48 people were arrested in January of last year for their alleged role in a scheme that involved using card skimming devices to steal EBT card information.

The arrested individuals, including Romanian national and reputed gangster Florin Duduianu, were accused of having links to Eastern European organized crime.

"The victims are single mothers struggling to put a roof over their children’s heads and food on the table and hardworking people who need a helping hand who find themselves standing at the checkout line with bags full of groceries only to be humiliated when they find that they have no money in their account because a thief has surreptitiously taken everything," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer was quoted as saying.