An individual will be arrested soon for allegedly stealing and selling the personal information of four lakh people from the Social Security database, Elon Musk has said.
“I believe that someone is going to be arrested tomorrow,” the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head was heard saying in a voice note shared on X by DogeDesigner.
“This is someone who actually stole 400,000 Social Security numbers and personal information from the Social Security database,” he said.
Musk linked the breach to illegal immigration and voter fraud, suggesting that stolen Social Security numbers allow non-citizens to vote.
“This is a particular avenue of fraud for illegal immigrants and voter fraud because the main way that identification is established in the United States is via social security. So if you compromise the security system, you can basically get people to get the fact that they’re interested to vote even if they’re not citizens,” Musk explained.
He also accused Democrats of making it easier for undocumented immigrants to receive benefits, claiming Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, and IRS refunds were being misused. “The Democrats basically [have] taken every part of the government that could possibly be bent towards providing financial incentives for illegal immigrants,” Musk alleged.
He even claimed that funds meant for disaster relief had been misused. “That diverted FEMA funds, which are supposed to be for helping Americans in distress from national disasters, [were used] to pay for luxury hotels in New York for illegal sustainer,” he said.
???? ELON MUSK: “Someone is going to be arrested tomorrow. He actually stole 400,000 social security numbers & personal information from the Social Security database and was selling social security numbers in order for people to basically steal money from Social Security.” pic.twitter.com/1hjl1Umcup
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) April 1, 2025
There has been no official confirmation of an arrest or any statements from law enforcement agencies regarding Musk’s claims.
Earlier, Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan that Social Security was “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
In a speech before Congress in March, US President Donald Trump spoke of “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud” in the Social Security system.
Michael Astrue, a former Social Security commissioner, said the administration was ill informed, as per NPR. “If you want to go in and put in efficiencies to bring down the size of the agency, you can do that. But there’s a smart way to do it, and there’s a stupid way to do it,” Mr Astrue said. “And we’re doing it the way that 22-year-old frat boys that have never seen the system think is a good idea, and that’s a mistake.”
Mr Astrue also said that DOGE workers lacked expertise in Social Security’s old but essential programming language, COBOL. Without this knowledge, he fears they may disrupt critical operations.
“Instead of admitting error, he doubled down and had the president of the United States make that claim. And that’s a real disservice to President Trump,” Mr Astrue added.