The Justice Department said in a report Tuesday that more resources are needed to investigate and prosecute people who stole billions in pandemic relief funds.
Federal officials said they had made “significant progress” in fighting fraud but acknowledged that “significant work remains to be done given numerous challenges.” The report said agencies responsible for prosecuting pandemic fraudsters have been constrained by budget cuts.
The federal government, which distributed trillions in aid after the pandemic began, has charged more than 3,500 defendants with crimes related to pandemic fraud, according to the report. That’s an increase from the approximately 3,100 defendants charged through August. More than $1.4 billion in fraudulently obtained funds have been seized or confiscated.
In most cases these were the Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and expanded unemployment benefits.
While the amount of funds stolen is unknown, the Small Business Administration’s inspector general estimated that more than $200 billion — or at least 17 percent of the roughly $1.2 trillion in pandemic loans the agency has made — went to ” potentially fraudulent actors” were distributed.
The Government Accountability Office said up to $135 billion of the roughly $900 billion in unemployment benefits paid out between April 2020 and May 2023 were likely claimed illegally.
While most pandemic relief programs have largely ended, Justice Department officials said state workforce agencies continue to provide additional data that could be analyzed for clues. Some stolen aid funds “remain in bank accounts and must be forfeited,” the report said.
“The Department of Justice is committed to continuing our efforts to investigate and prosecute pandemic fraud,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
The report also warned that prosecuting cases could become more difficult due to statute of limitations, which range from five to 10 years. The ministry is calling on lawmakers to pass a law that applies the 10-year statute of limitations to all fraud offenses related to the pandemic.
“The statute of limitations must be extended and the necessary resources and data analysis tools secured so that our prosecutors can recover hundreds of millions of dollars in additional fraud proceeds,” Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
White House officials have called on lawmakers to provide additional funding to help law enforcement officials prosecute cases. On Tuesday, three Democratic senators introduced a bill that would, among other things, provide $300 million to help the Justice Department improve enforcement.
President Biden “strongly supports” the legislation, which would implement many of the pandemic fraud proposals released by the president last year, White House officials said.
After the pandemic shut down much of the economy, the federal government doled out trillions in relief money to help American households and small businesses recover. But in the federal government’s rush to make the money available, much of it came with few conditions attached. As a result, billions of taxpayer dollars were stolen from thousands of people, from sophisticated criminals to amateur fraudsters.
Federal officials have been trying to stop the wave of fraud for years. In addition to U.S. attorney’s offices, hundreds of people in more than 40 inspector general’s offices are working on pandemic fraud investigations, as are agents from the FBI, Secret Service, Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.
Federal prosecutors have used various methods to catch criminals. At the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, officials have begun investigating people suspected of violent crimes and illegal gun possession for pandemic fraud. Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Mississippi have also asked district officials to review lists of people who received pandemic loans.
But given the sheer volume of fraud, tracking down people who have taken advantage of pandemic relief programs is a difficult task. Officials have acknowledged that some thefts involving smaller amounts may never be prosecuted.
The response to the wave of pandemic fraud has also made federal officials keenly aware of “the need for a permanent, multi-agency body” to combat government benefit fraud, as some fraudsters appear to be using the criminal skills and tools they acquired during the pandemic According to the report, they continue to attack programs.
Source link
2024-04-09 20:26:28
www.nytimes.com
