The Justice Department celebrated its pandemic fraud efforts Wednesday, saying it has seized $1.4 billion back from fraudsters.
The department recounted its most recent sweep of cases, saying it netted criminal charges against 371 defendants, and 119 defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial from May to July. The sweep covered $836 million in fraudulent payments.
Among the cases were 25 that the Justice Department said were connected to international criminal syndicates.
Dozens of others were connected to violent crimes, including one case where someone used pandemic money to pay for a murder-for-hire, said Michael C. Galdo, acting director of the Justice Department’s COVID-19 fraud enforcement effort.
Department officials said the announcement was intended to let fraudsters know that despite three years since the start of the pandemic, investigators haven’t given up on nailing them.
“The COVID-19 public health emergency may have ended, but the Justice Department’s work to identify and prosecute those who stole pandemic relief funds is far from over,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Among the cases in the new sweep were charges against members of the Wild 100s street gang in Milwaukee. Two gang associates are accused of a murder-for-hire hit.
COVID-19 fraud cases continue to pile up in federal courts.
Prosecutors won a 34-month sentence this week against a Missouri man who ran a construction company and filed for unemployment benefits under his employees’ names, kicking back some of the payments to them for letting him use their identities.
Authorities said he collected $142,423 in that scam.
Federal prosecutors in California last week won a 30-month sentence against a man who walked away with $1.6 million in bogus unemployment benefits.
Defendants usually are asked to repay the money they stole, though getting it back can prove tricky.
The $1.4 billion the Justice Department says it has recovered is a drop compared with the scope of the fraud, which analysts peg at hundreds of billions of dollars spanning a wide range of assistance programs.
The cases announced Wednesday included unemployment fraud, bogus applications for small business loans, tax credit fraud, health care billing fraud and rental assistance fraud.
As part of Wednesday’s announcement, the Justice Department said it’s creating two COVID-19 fraud strike forces, bringing the total to five.
They operate out of U.S. attorney’s offices in Colorado, New Jersey, California, Florida and Maryland.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.