Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday said he would scrutinize any "big company or political insider" who received federal stimulus money they were not supposed to get from the government's trillion-dollar relief package.

Biden's remarks were targeted at Republican President Donald Trump's administration whose handling of the stimulus funds have drawn criticism from some quarters, after reports that some large publicly traded companies had been beneficiaries of the funds meant to cushion small businesses from effects of the pandemic.

"Let me issue a warning right now to anyone who participates in the corrupt giveaways of President Trump and his administration," Biden said in a video statement.

Biden said that if elected, he would appoint an inspector general "to review every stimulus loan given to any big company or political insider. Every single one."

The inspector general would have the authority to refer potential wrongdoing by a company or executive to the Justice Department, he said.

Since early March, Congress has passed bills allocating around $3 trillion to combat the pandemic, including taxpayer money for individuals and companies to blunt an economic impact that includes an unemployment rate to 14.7% in April.

"Any dollar that goes to someone that does not merit it under the law, any dollar taken corruptly, we will find it, we will come get it and we will punish the wrongdoers," Biden said.

"That should start tomorrow. But if it doesn't, it will start on January 20, 2021."