U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco convene the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Fraud Enforcement Task Force on the Justice Department in Washington, U.S., March 10, 2022.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Federal law enforcement authorities charged a whole bunch of individuals in a nationwide sweep targeting greater than $830 million in Covid-19 fraud, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
The DOJ filed criminal charges against 371 individuals and recovered $231 million in stolen money, the department said in a release. Greater than 60 of the defendants had connections to violent crime and transnational criminal networks.
In a single case, 30 members of a street gang in Wisconsin allegedly used money from an unemployment fraud scheme to solicit murder for hire and buy firearms and medicines, said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco at a roundtable meeting of law enforcement officials Wednesday.
In one other case, 4 people were charged in a world pandemic relief fraud and money laundering scheme involving Nigeria, Monaco said.
Lots of the individuals targeted within the sweep are accused of fraudulently applying for assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans used to support small businesses throughout the pandemic, in keeping with a DOJ press release.
A government watchdog estimated in June that fraudsters can have stolen greater than $200 billion in loans intended for struggling businesses, or 17% of the $1.2 trillion disbursed in total.
The nationwide sweep involved three strike teams in California, Maryland and South Florida that cooperated with 50 U.S. attorneys and greater than a dozen law enforcement partners over the course of three months from May to July.
The DOJ is organising two additional strike teams in Colorado and Latest Jersey as a part of the federal government’s ongoing efforts to get better stolen pandemic relief money, Monaco said.
“We’ll seek judicial orders requiring convicted defendants to pay back every stolen dollar and now we have 20 years to understand those recoveries,” Monaco said.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland arrange a task force in May 2021 to go after fraudsters who stole Covid relief money. The group’s work has led to criminal charges against greater than 3,000 people and the seizure of greater than $1.4 billion in stolen Covid relief money thus far, in keeping with the DOJ.
