Deep Fraud Tangles in HUD: Carson Warns of Rapid Financial Waste After Biden Administration Lax Controls

A new HUD report flagging potentially fraudulent rent assistance payments has been highlighted by former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, revealing how swiftly fraud can spread when financial oversight is weakened.

In a recent interview, Carson described the “tentacles of the fraud” as being “very deep,” noting he was “alarmed at how much fraud and misuse of funding there was” during his tenure as HUD secretary under President Donald Trump.

“The tentacles of the fraud are very deep,” Carson said, adding that he was “alarmed at how much fraud and misuse of funding there was” when he arrived at HUD.

Carson stated that while the agency reduced fraud during Trump’s first term, the problem resurfaced under former President Joe Biden’s administration. The report detailed that approximately 30,000 deceased individuals and thousands of noncitizens received federal housing funds, with alleged improper payments totaling billions of dollars.

Carson emphasized that during Trump’s initial presidency, HUD implemented stringent oversight measures and financial controls, which significantly reduced public complaints about fraud. “Before the Trump administration, there were all these allegations about fraud going on at HUD,” he said. “Used to hear it all the time.”

“It took about a year and a half before you stopped hearing that,” Carson added. “That’s because we put so much effort into wiping out the fraud and putting in financial controls.”

Carson recently spoke with current HUD Secretary Scott Turner and his staff, calling the findings in the agency’s financial reporting “quite astonishing.” He warned that improper spending can quickly rebound when financial controls are neglected—such as payments to deceased individuals or inappropriate project-based and tenant-based funding.

“It didn’t take very long for the Biden administration to relax those controls,” Carson said. “And this is what happens. It happens in HUD. It happens in lots of other agencies across government.”

Carson further noted that when money is misallocated, those who genuinely need assistance are left out: “They recognize that when the money is inappropriately spent, it means those who actually need it are not getting it.”

Comparing efforts to curb fraud to turning a large ship, Carson explained: “It’s sort of like a cruise ship. You’ve got to turn it around… It takes a while to turn that thing around.”

Carson also referenced a recent scandal in Minnesota involving daycare and learning centers, where he claimed at least 50 facilities had no children enrolled: “They came to at least 50 different centers, and there were no kids in any of them. You have to be really gullible to believe that’s a coincidence.”