KEY FACTS
In its annual report released Tuesday, the Department of Justice’s Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force says its members have filed charges against more than 3,500 defendants for fraudulently obtaining funding meant for pandemic relief efforts since the task force was formed in 2021—cases believed to account for total losses of more than $2 billion.
Of the 3,500 defendants charged by U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country, 2,005 defendants have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial—but the report says there are a “similar number of investigations open that are yet to be charged.”
Members of the task force have also secured more than 400 civil settlements and judgements totaling more than $100 million.
The money seized by the DOJ was fraudulently obtained through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the landmark 2020 stimulus bill that established programs to distribute trillions of dollars in aid to individuals impacted by the pandemic.
In one example cited in the report, a Washington business owner pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining more than $16 million in pandemic-relief funding by applying for funding for dozens of businesses purportedly owned by him or his associates using false information—with many of the businesses inactive.
But defendants weren’t limited to business owners—the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, for instance, prosecuted 17 employees with the Broward Sheriff’s Office for each independently fraudulently applying for pandemic relief and receiving a combined $500,000 illegally.