The Social Security Administration paid $20.2 million in benefits to more than 130 suspected Nazi war criminals, SS guards and others who may have participated in the Third Reich's World War II atrocities, according to a report from the administration's inspector general obtained by The Associated Press.
The report found that $5.6 million was paid to 38 former Nazis before they were deported. An additional $14.5 million was paid to people who were not deported, but were alleged or found to have assisted the Nazis in World War II, according to the AP. The entire report is set to be released this week.
An AP investigation found that the Department of Justice used a legal loophole to persuade suspected Nazis to leave the country in exchange for Social Security benefits, telling them that if they agreed to leave voluntarily, they could keep their benefits. The Justice Department reportedly denied the agreement.
The payments occurred between February 1962 and January 2015, but no names of Nazi suspects who received benefits are mentioned in the report.
As many as 10,000 Nazi persecutors were estimated to have flocked to America following the war, many lying about their pasts to become American citizens.
The inspector general found that 133 alleged of confirmed Nazis actively worked to hide their true identities from the government in order to receive benefits.
Congress passed the No Social Security for Nazis Act to close the loophole and prohibit Nazi suspects from receiving benefits, and President Obama signed the legislation into law last year.
