Elon Musk alleges widespread fraud in government payrolls, claims ‘non-existent’ workers receiving checks
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The head of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) Elon Musk has accused federal workers U.S. government of widespread payroll fraud, claiming that many federal workers are doing little to no work, with some paychecks allegedly going to “non-existent people” or deceased individuals.
In a post on X, Musk stated that some government employees are so inactive that they are not even checking their email.
“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” he wrote.
Musk further suggested that fraudulent activity may be taking place within the federal payroll system.
“In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud,” he added.
He added that an email sent out to federal workers asking them to list five accomplishments was not only to see what federal workers are doing on a routine basis, but to prove they actually exist.
The DOGE head predicts many emails will go unanswered because either the person behind the email does not exist, does not regularly work or check email, or worse, is dead.