The Justice Department’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force has released its 2024 report. It details the efforts of the task force and its member agencies in response to widespread fraud involving many Covid-19 relief programs targeted by fraudsters and other criminals who sought to exploit the government’s relief efforts for their personal gain.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said that since establishing the Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force three years ago, more than 3,500 fraudsters were charged, more than $1.4 billion seized or forfeited in stolen Covid-19 relief funds, and more than 400 civil lawsuits were settled.
On the day the Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force released its annual report, a new legislation introduced in the Senate that Includes Key White House proposals to address systemic pandemic fraud and to prevent future schemes.
Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden introduced the Fraud Prevention and Recovery Act to crack down on systemic pandemic fraud across government programs and help victims of identity theft recover.
This legislation would ensure that Oversight and Enforcement bodies have the resources to prosecute major pandemic fraud and recoup taxpayer dollars; provide $300 million to triple the Covid-19 Fraud Strike Force teams; increases the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act cap to $1 million; and provides $250 million to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Department of Labor (DOL) Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs).
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