The United States Secret Service released alarming information this week. The theft of funds from pandemic aid programs for businesses and the unemployed amounts to at least $ 100 billion.
The estimate is based on Secret Service cases and data from the Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration, Roy Dotson, the agency’s national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator, revealed in an interview with the Associated Press. and other media like CNBC. The Secret Service did not include fraud cases prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Although the figure of $ 100 billion accounts for approximately 3% of the $ 3.4 trillion disbursed, the amount stolen from pandemic benefit programs shows that even a fraction of the loot is tempting to criminals.
Most of this figure comes from fraud in aid for the unemployed. The Labor Department reported that some $ 87 billion in unemployment benefits were improperly collected, with a significant portion attributable to fraud.
Multiple investigations
The Secret Service indicated that it has returned more than 2.3 billion dollars of funds obtained fraudulently thanks to its collaboration with financial partners and the different states of the country to reverse the transactions. I also report that it currently has more than 900 active criminal investigations, with cases in every state. To date, it has arrested 100 people.
The US Department of Justice noted last week that its fraud section had prosecuted more than 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and seized more than $ 75 million in cash benefits derived from Payroll Protection Program funds. (PPP), designed to help SMEs, fraudulently obtained, as well as numerous real estate and luxury items acquired with these resources.
Biden’s stimuli attract crime
At the beginning of the pandemic, law enforcement agencies in the US focused on fraud related to personal protective equipment, according to the Secret Service. Now authorities have prioritized the exploitation of the stimulus because federal funding through the CARES Act attracted the attention of individuals and organized criminal networks around the world.
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