The assessment is based on a share available to secret services and data from the Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration, said in an interview Roy Dotson, national coordinator of the Pandemic Fraud Recovery Agency. The secret services do not include cases of fraud with Covid funds, which are dealt with separately by the Ministry of Justice.
Although only about 3 percent of the $ 3.4 trillion has disappeared, the amount stolen from pandemic compensation programs shows that "the size of the pot itself is tempting for criminals," Dotson said.
Most of this figure comes from unemployment fraud. The Department of Labor said about $ 87 billion in unemployment benefits may have been paid incorrectly, much of it due to fraud.
Secret services said they detained more than $ 1.2 billion while investigating unemployment insurance and loan fraud, and returned more than $ 2.3 billion in fraudulent funds working with financial partners and the United States to cancel transactions. The secret services say they have more than 900 active criminal investigations into fraud surrounding the pandemic, with cases in each state, and 100 people have been arrested so far.
The Justice Department said last week that its fraud department had prosecuted 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and confiscated more than $ 75 million in proceeds from fraudulent salaries from the Salary Protection Program, as well as numerous real estates. properties and purchased luxury items with revenue.
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