Big numbers being touted by the White House’s task force to eliminate fraud aren’t quite adding up, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

While Vice President JD Vance recently boasted about the team uncovering $250 billion of government grift since he was tapped as fraud czar in April, a deep dive into documents released by the administration yields more questions than answers.

A “fraud ledger” first published by the White House in August lists three categories of “fraud, waste and corruption” it has identified since 2025: fraud that was “uncovered” by the task force, fraud “stopped” by administrative action and fraud “enforced” through indictments, settlements and fines.

Though the totals are broken down by government agencies on the page, there is no further information about how the task force calculated its totals, which sit at $260.7 billion uncovered, $72 billion stopped and $58.9 billion enforced as of Monday.

While the figures very well could be accurate, the Times couldn’t do much to verify the estimates without insight into the task force’s methodology. Nor did it appear that the figures had been reviewed by any of the government’s outside oversight bodies.

Asked why the fraud ledger’s findings were not itemized, a senior White House official told the Times more detailed data had the potential to compromise current law enforcement investigations.

The lack of transparency raised questions for Mark Greenblatt, a former inspector general for the Interior Department who spoke to the newspaper.

“Are these figures grounded in any sort of standards?” he wondered.

Other problems with the figures stem from what appear to be questionable timelines. Some of the task force’s totals appear to include the results of investigations that were conducted under previous administrations or by local governments.

While Greenblatt didn’t deny that the team “deserve[s] credit for taking [the investigations] through the finish line,” he said framing the numbers as if they all “occurred during the life span of the task force is a sleight of hand, in my view.”

There is also the possibility that some of the data may have been double-counted, though a senior White House official who spoke to the Times denied the case.

A White House press release celebrating the task force’s “key actions and victories” includes the capture of two people responsible for a $4.9 billion Medicare scheme.

Another item in the release, however, heralds charges against 455 defendants involved in $6.5 billion worth of health care fraud, numbers that appear to include the two aforementioned fugitives.

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