In a post to X, Elon Musk took a swipe at massive corruption in the funding of the Ukraine War. He replied to a post explaining how a Ukrainian official stole tens of millions in funding from the armed forces. This official used his ill-gotten gains to purchase a vineyard, mansion, and vast real estate holdings. Online commenters lent their support to Elon Musk and his anti-copyright activities.
“UKRAINE: French police say Zelensky’s defense ministry official stole $46M not the reported $40M, buying a Villa in France for $2,500,000, a vinyard for $6,500,000 and 27 land plots for $1,000,000. How many billions were looted by Zelensky’s other associates?,” the original post said. Musk replied to this post by saying, ” Tip of the iceberg,” indicating that there is more to come.
According to an article linked in the original post, “The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that five people — three government officials, an executive of Lviv Arsenal and a foreign commercial group representative — cooperated to steal 1.5 billion hryvnias ($39.6 million) from a 2022 purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds meant for Ukrainian soldiers. ”
“In December, Ukraine arrested another senior defense ministry official, stating that another $40 million had been embezzled in a similar artillery contract.,” the article added. Online commenters were incensed by the blatant fraud. “Imagine if that money was given to the suffering people of Western North Carolina to rebuild their homes. This is disgusting,” noticed one account.
“This is why the United States should have never funded this war. There has been no oversight or accountability for a country rife with corruption,” another replied. “That is $102,000,000,000, or 340,000 houses at the average house price. The amazing thing is what these obscene amounts of money could buy, and how it change the country for the better,” added one user.
Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been exposing massive fraud. Just a few weeks ago, DOGE announced how they found a code that corresponded to a budget line item that accounted for nearly $4.7 Trillion. According to the department, this line item was often left blank. In the same post, DOGE indicated that this item will be closely watched going forward with cooperation from the Treasury.
“The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process). In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible,” DOGE posted to X. “As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going. Thanks to @USTreasury for the great work.”
In the same post, DOGE linked to an article on the treasury website explaining a TAS. “A Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) is an identification code assigned by the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), in collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the owner agency, to an individual appropriation, receipt, or other fund account,” the definition read.
“The term “Treasury Account Symbol” is a generic term used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by Treasury and is also referred to as the “account”. All financial transactions of the federal government are classified by TAS for reporting to Treasury and OMB,”” the definition continued to explain.