2LT International News

WASHINGTON D.C.: The US Justice Department announced that it has seized more than $1.4 billion in COVID-19 relief funds stolen by criminals.

It has also charged over 3,000 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country.

The Justice Department made this statement while announcing the results of a nationwide efforts to combat COVID-19-related fraud, including federal criminal charges against 371 defendants for offenses involving more than $836 million having been stolen.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “This latest action, involving over 300 defendants and over $830 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud, should send a clear message: the COVID-19 public health emergency may have ended, but the Justice Department’s work to identify and prosecute those who stole pandemic relief funds is far from over.”

The Justice Department said that 119 defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.

In May 2021, Garland launched a COVID-19 fraud enforcement task force, and in 2022 the department deployed federal prosecutor Kevin Chambers to lead its investigation into alleged fraud schemes targeting pandemic assistance programs.

More than $200 billion of the US government’s Covid relief aid was potentially stolen, a federal watchdog said in late June, noting that the US Small Business Administration (SBA) had weakened its controls in a rush to disburse the funds.

The US government could have handed out $5.4 billion in COVID-19 aid to people with questionable Social Security numbers, a separate watchdog report said earlier this year.