An investigation has revealed that at least about $100 billion was stolen from covid relief programs set up to help businesses and people who lost jobs due to the pandemic.

The US Department of Labor's Secret Service and Small Business Administration released estimate based on data and data analysis, according to the agency's national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator Roy Dotson.

The largest share of that figure concerns unemployment theft. The Labor Department reported that some $87 billion in unemployment benefits could have been improperly paid, with a significant portion attributable to fraud.

The US government reacted on Wednesday and said that the agency's conclusion is based on old data.

When asked about the amount of fraud, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said there were no new investigations, data or fraud.

The same day, agency said the information was based on data from the Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration and was not from a new Secret Service report.

The Secret Service said it seized more than $1.2 billion while investigating unemployment insurance and loan fraud and returned more than $2.3 billion of fraudulently obtained funds by working with financial partners and states to reverse transactions. The Secret Service claims to have more than 900 active criminal investigations into pandemic fraud, with cases in every state, and one hundred people have been arrested to date.

"Can we stop fraud? Will we? No, but I think we can definitely prosecute those who need to be prosecuted and we can do our best to recover as much of the fraudulent pandemic funds as we can," Dotson said.