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- The Justice Department announced that 3,500 people have been indicted and $1.4 billion has been recovered in the pandemic fraud investigation.
- Lawmakers and the White House are pushing to extend the deadline for prosecuting pandemic fraud and give the inspector general authority to continue reviewing pandemic spending.
WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice’s COVID-19 Enforcement Task Force has indicted more than 3,500 people for federal crimes over the past three years, recovered more than $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic funds, and secured more than 400 civil settlements. The verdict has been reached, Biden administration officials said. .
White House officials and lawmakers are using Tuesday’s announcement as a starting point to expand funding for anti-fraud enforcement, extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting crimes, and expand government databases to better detect when payments shouldn’t be made. He proposed a bill aimed at improving the situation.
“We will continue our efforts to investigate and prosecute pandemic relief fraud and recover assets stolen from American taxpayers,” Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters Tuesday.
Investigation reveals false billing and siphoning of money from children’s meals
Sample fraud investigations include:
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- In September 2022, 47 people were accused of siphoning $250 million from a coronavirus pandemic relief program meant to feed children in a “shady scheme of staggering scale.” Federal charges have been revealed.
- In April 2022, a roundup of suspects including doctors, marketers, and manufacturers of counterfeit vaccine cards resulted in 21 people being charged with $149 million in false claims and theft from government programs.
- A USA TODAY investigation found that 15 of the largest and hardest-hit states are awarding hundreds of millions in non-competitive awards, with their own sources, to sellers of masks and other products that allegedly defrauded taxpayers. Turns out he was giving dollars.
Lawmakers and White House call for bill to expand fraud enforcement
As lawmakers unveil a bill with COVID-19 relief provisions, Democratic senators and White House officials said the bill is needed to continue combating COVID-19 fraud.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the pandemic has caused “historic levels of fraud” and that bad actors are “taking advantage of fraud for their own financial gain.” “They took advantage of the disaster.”
Suggestions include:
- Triples funding to $300 million for prosecutorial teams coordinating pandemic fraud investigations.
- Increases the cap on fines in civil fraud cases from $150,000 to $1 million.
- Provides $250 million to the Small Business Administration and Department of Labor Inspector General to identify and recover fraud.
- Extends the statute of limitations for pandemic unemployment insurance fraud from five years to 10 years.
“We must extend the statute of limitations and ensure prosecutors have the funding and data analysis tools they need to recover hundreds of millions of dollars more in fraudulent proceeds, bring the remaining criminals to justice, and disrupt the criminal networks that continue to victimize the public. ” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Treasury Committee, said another important provision would create a Social Security number verification system to thwart identity theft.
“This is truly an epidemic. Millions of Americans are victims of identity theft,” Wyden said.
Gene Sperling, coordinator of the American Rescue Plan and senior adviser to President Joe Biden, said funding would need to be spent over several years to hire agents who can go after the most sophisticated criminals.
“If we’re going to go after the most sophisticated criminals and criminal organizations that have most abused our systems, we need not only longer statutes of limitations, but also the security enforcement and oversight to carry out a variety of actions. It’s a yearly hire,” Sperling said. “If we don’t, we might lose people.”
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