Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently stated that illegal employment schemes have generated over $2.5 billion in suspicious activity connected to payroll tax fraud in 2025. The bombshell was dropped while Bessent spoke at an event with Texas bankers in the city of Houston. The secretary revealed that financial institutions reported over $2.5 billion in suspicious activity related to tax fraud schemes this year alone.
Bessent connected the schemes to unlawful employment practices, labor brokers, shell companies, identity theft, and what he referred to as forms of financial exploitation. “In 2025 alone, financial institutions reported more than $2.5 billion in suspicious activity associated with payroll tax fraud schemes,” Bessent told his audience.
“These schemes hurt law-abiding businesses, depress wages, steal taxpayer dollars, facilitate identity theft, and create opportunities for transnational criminal organizations to generate and move illicit proceeds,” he added. The secretary then explained that the issue is directly connected to President Donald Trump’s efforts to fight back against illegal immigration, fraud, and financial crime.
“Texas remains on the front lines of the challenges created by years of unchecked illegal immigration under the Biden Administration,” Bessent said, according to Breitbart News. “Criminal organizations and cartels continue to seek opportunities to exploit our financial system and harm law-abiding businesses and workers.”
Bessent then brought up a recent advisory issued by the Treasury Department and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) that identifies the warning signs associated with unlawful employment schemes. The guidance from the agency focuses on payroll tax evasion, shell companies, labor brokers, identity theft, and other activities that may indicate financial crimes.
“The advisory does not ask banks to become immigration officers,” Bessent explained in his speech. “It asks banks to do what they do best: know their customers, identify risk, recognize suspicious patterns, and report illicit activity when they see it.” He added that community banks are an essential part of the country’s defense against the crime of money laundering, labor exploitation, and cartel-connected financial activity due to local institutions recognizing risks as they happen, which is often before it shows up in national data.
“Economic security is national security,” the Treasury Secretary said. Bessent also announced there would be updated FinCEN guidance that would enable financial institutions to share information concerning fraud at a quicker pace so they could better coordinate with each other. He then said that the efforts will assist the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which is currently being led by Vice President JD Vance.
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A user commenting on the Breitbart story lamented, “I’ve wondered how so many people who have no real job can afford mult-million dollar homes. Turns out I am the schmuck who legally lived within my means. Who knew there was so much FREE money?” Another wrote, “More illegal alien and employer fraud. This evil is everywhere. We have no right to say how corrupt Mexico is. We’re giving them a run for their money.” He then added, “I’ll bet alot of it is employers pulling lots of money out of the bank at payday, to pay their underpaid illegal aliens in cash money.”
Watch JD Vance comment on Somali migrant welfare use here: