Nearly $ 100 billion has been stolen from the Covid-19 assistance program which was established to help businesses and people who lost their jobs because of the Pandemic, the US Secret Service said Tuesday.
This estimate is based on the case of confidential services and data from the Ministry of Manpower and Small Business Administration, said Roy Dotson, Coordinator of the National Pandemic Fraud Recovery, in an interview.
Secret service does not include Covid-19 fraud cases demanded by the Ministry of Justice.
While around 3% of $ 3.4 trillion scattered, the amount stolen from the Pandemic benefit program shows “the size of the pot that is attracted for criminals,” Dotson said.
Most of that number comes from unemployment fraud.
The Labor Department reported about $ 87 billion in unemployment benefits could be paid inappropriately, with a significant portion associated with fraud.
Secret service said it has confiscated more than $ 1.2 billion while investigating unemployment insurance and loan fraud and has returned more than $ 2.3 billion in funds obtained cheating by working with financial partners and countries to reverse transactions.
Secret services said they had more than 900 active crime investigations against pandemic fraud, with cases in each state, and 100 people had been captured so far.
The Justice department said last week that the fraudulent section had demanded more than 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and had captured more than $ 75 million in cash yielded from the funds of salary protection programs obtained cheating, as well as many real estate properties and goods luxury purchased with results.
One of the most famous programs created through the Care Act 2020 March, PPP offers low interest, loans that allow for small businesses struggling to meet salaries and other costs during shutdown related to pandemics.
Law enforcement at the beginning of the pandemic focuses on fraud related to private protective equipment, the secret service said.
The authorities now prioritize exploitation of assistance related to pandemic because federal funding through care is to attract the attention of individuals and organized criminal tissue throughout the world.
“Can we stop fraud? Will we? No, but I think we can demand that they need to be prosecuted and we can do our best to recover the false pandemic funds that we can,” Dotson said, which is the secret service of the Special Agent Assistant responsible Over the agency office in Jacksonville, Florida.