According to officials, the Justice Department’s COVID-19 Enforcement Task Force has been successful in the past three years. They have charged over 3,500 individuals with federal crimes and managed to recover a staggering $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic funds. Additionally, the task force has resolved more than 400 civil settlements and judgments.
White House officials and lawmakers are using the announcement as an opportunity to propose new legislation aimed at boosting funding for anti-fraud enforcement, extending the statute of limitations on prosecuting crimes, and enhancing government databases to improve the detection of improper payments.
Attorney General Merrick Garland assured reporters on Tuesday that the investigation and prosecution of pandemic relief fraud will persist, with a strong focus on recovering the assets that have been unlawfully taken from American taxpayers.
Investigations found false billings and siphoning money from children’s meals
Fraud investigations encompass a wide range of cases, some of which are outlined below:
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- Federal charges unveiled in September 2022 against 47 people accused of siphoning $250 million from a coronavirus pandemic relief program designed to provide meals for children, in “a brazen scheme of staggering proportions.”
- A sweep of suspects including doctors, marketers and manufacturers of fake vaccination cards in April 2022 resulted in charges against 21 people accused with $149 million in false billings and theft from government programs.
- Fifteen of the largest and hardest-hit states awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in sole-sourced, non-competitive awards went to vendors for items such as masks that have been accused of defrauding taxpayers, a USA TODAY investigation found .
Lawmakers, White House call for legislation to expand fraud enforcement
On Tuesday, Democratic senators and White House officials argued that legislation is required to continue combating COVID fraud, as the senators unveiled a measure containing provisions to prevent it.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated that the epidemic “led to historic levels of fraud” and that criminal actors “took advantage of the disaster for their own financial gain.”
Here are the proposals:
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- Tripling the funding to $300 million for prosecution teams coordinating pandemic fraud investigations.
- Raising the cap on penalties in civil fraud cases to $1 million from $150,000.
- Providing $250 million to the Small Business Administration and Labor Department inspectors general to identify and recover fraud.
- Extending the statute of limitations on pandemic unemployment insurance fraud to 10 years from five years.
“The statute of limitations must be extended and the necessary funding and data analytic tools secured for our prosecutors to recover hundreds of millions of dollars more in fraud proceeds, bring remaining offenders to justice, and disrupt criminal networks that continue to victimize our citizens,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chair of the Finance Committee, stated that another crucial item would establish a Social Security number verification mechanism to combat identity theft.
“This is really an epidemic,” Wyden stated. “Millions of Americans have been victims of identity theft.”
According to Gene Sperling, coordinator of the American Rescue Plan and senior adviser to President Joe Biden, hiring investigators capable of pursuing the most sophisticated crooks requires allocating resources over several years.
“If we’re going to be committed to going after the most sophisticated criminals and criminal syndicates who abused our system the most, you not only need a longer statute of limitations, you also need to give enforcement and oversight the security to do multi-year hiring,” he said. “Without that, we may lose people.”
