A 25YearOld With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System WIRED

pA 25yearold engineer named Marko Elez who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government three sources tell WIREDppTwo of those sources say that Elezs privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service BFS Housed on a secure mainframe these systems control on a granular level government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economyppDespite reporting that suggests that Musks socalled Department of Government Efficiency DOGE task force has access to these Treasury systems on a readonly level sources say Elez who has visited a Kansas City office housing BFS systems has many administratorlevel privileges Typically those admin privileges could give someone the power to log in to servers through secure shell access navigate the entire file system change user permissions and delete or modify critical files That could allow someone to bypass the security measures of and potentially cause irreversible changes to the very systems they have access toppYou could do anything with these privileges says one source with knowledge of the system who adds that they cannot conceive of a reason that anyone would need them for purposes of simply hunting down fraudulent payments or analyzing disbursement flowppTechnically I dont see why this couldnt happen a federal IT worker tells WIRED in a phone call late on Monday night referring to the possibility of a DOGE employee being granted elevated access to a government server If you would have asked me a week ago Id have told you that this kind of thing would never in a million years happen But now who the fuck knowsppA source says they are concerned that data could be passed from secure systems to DOGE operatives within the General Services Administration WIRED reporting has shown that Elon Musks associatesincluding Nicole Hollander who slept in Twitters offices as Musk acquired the company and Thomas Shedd a former Tesla engineer who now runs a GSA agency along with a host of extremely young and inexperienced engineershave infiltrated the GSA and have attempted to use White House security credentials to gain access to GSA tech something experts have said is highly unusual and poses a huge security riskppElez according to public databases and other records reviewed by WIRED is a 25yearold who graduated Rutgers University in 2021 and subsequently worked at SpaceX Musks space company where he focused on vehicle telemetry starship software and satellite software Elez then joined X Musks social media company where he worked on search AI Public Github repositories show years of software development with a particular interest in distributed systems recommendation engines and machine learning He does not appear to have prior government experienceppElez did not immediately respond to a request for comment The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for commentppGot a TipppAre you a current or former employee at the Treasury or Bureau of the Fiscal Service Or other government tech worker Wed like to hear from you Using a nonwork phone or computer contact the reporters securely on Signal at velliott8818 dmehro89 leahfeiger86 and timmarchman01ppBroadly speaking the US government pays out money in one of two ways Agencies like the Department of Defense and the US Postal Service are legally authorized to originate certify and issue payments on their own The vast majority of payments thoughincluding federal tax returns Social Security benefits Supplemental Security Income benefits and veterans payflow through the Federal Disbursement Services which according to Treasury records paid out 545 trillion in fiscal year 2024 The Bureau of the Fiscal Service a nonpartisan body is charged with directing this money appropriately moving it from government accounts to recipients The Payment Automation Manager and the Secure Payment System are the mechanisms through which the money is paid outppControl of those mechanisms could allow someone to choke off money to specific federal agencies or even individuals a fear that Democrats have expressed about DOGE On Monday Senate Democrats warned of DOGEs encroachment into the payment system Will DOGE cut funding to programs approved by Congress that Donald Trump decides he doesnt like said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York What about cancer research Food banks School lunches Veterans aid Literacy programs Small business loansppThe fight over whether DOGE could access Treasury systems led to a previously reported standoff between acting Treasury secretary David Lebryk and Musks associates Lebryk was placed on administrative leave last week and subsequently resignedppLebryks resignation set an example a source tells WIRED Any idea of resistance or noncompliance seems to be fading in the wake of that and everything I have heard from leadership suggests they intend to give the DOGE operatives what they are asking forppUpdated 242025 1145 AM EDT WIRED has updated the article to clarify on which mainframe the systems are housedppIn your inbox WIREDs most ambitious futuredefining storiesppDOGE takeover Elon Musks toxicity could spell disaster for TeslappBig Story A crypto crimefighters descent into Nigerian prisonppI dated multiple AI partners at once It got real weirdppSummer Lab Explore the future of tech with WIREDppMore From WIREDppReviews and Guidespp 2025 Condé Nast All rights reserved WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers The material on this site may not be reproduced distributed transmitted cached or otherwise used except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast Ad Choicesp