Fraudsters stole over $280 billion in pandemic relief funds: report

13 June 2023

Although millions of Americans who were able to work remotely continued to prosper during the COVID-19 pandemic, many others who didn't have that option struggled. And federal pandemic relief was designed to help them weather the storm.

But that relief, according to an Associated Press article published on June 13, was abused by people who didn't really need the help.

AP's Richard Lardner reports, "An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents 10 percent of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid. That number is certain to grow as investigators dig deeper into thousands of potential schemes."

Lardner notes that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has "charged more than 2230 defendants with pandemic-related fraud crimes and is conducting thousands of investigations."

Federal prosecutor Dan Fruchter told AP, "Here was this sort of endless pot of money that anyone could access. Folks kind of fooled themselves into thinking that it was a socially acceptable thing to do, even though it wasn't legal.”

Read the Associated Press' full report at this link.

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