{"id":2009647,"date":"2023-08-23T16:31:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/371-charged-for-covid-19-fraud-totaling-836-million-doj\/"},"modified":"2023-08-23T16:33:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T20:33:45","slug":"371-charged-for-covid-19-fraud-totaling-836-million-doj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/371-charged-for-covid-19-fraud-totaling-836-million-doj\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ charges 371 for $836M COVID-19 fraud."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F371-charged-for-covid-19-fraud-totaling-836-million-doj%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2009647&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The Department\u200d of Justice Launches New COVID-19 Fraud Strike Forces<\/h2>\n<p>The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched two new COVID-19 fraud\u2064 strike \u2064forces, the department said Wednesday in\u2062 announcing \u200bthe filing of criminal charges against\u200d 371\u200c people\u200b in relation to the theft\u200c of more than $836 million in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-jersey-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-fraudulently-receiving-millions-in-covid-small-business-relief-funds\/\" title=\"New Jersey Man Sentenced To Prison For Fraudulently Receiving Millions In Covid Small Business Relief Funds\">pandemic relief funds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe\u200c Justice Department has now seized over $1.4 billion in \u200dCOVID-19 relief funds\u200c that\u2064 criminals had stolen, and charged over 3,000 defendants with crimes in federal districts across\u2063 the country,\u201d Attorney\u200d General Merrick Garland said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-announces-results-nationwide-covid-19-fraud-enforcement-action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis latest action, involving over 300 defendants and over $830 million in alleged COVID-19 \u200dfraud, should\u2062 send a clear message: The \u200dCOVID-19 public health emergency\u200b may have ended, but the Justice Department\u2019s work to identify and prosecute those who stole pandemic relief funds is far from over,\u201d he \u200badded.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/florida-couple-charged-with-more-than-2-million-in-covid-19-relief-fraud-5338925\">Florida Couple \u2063Charged With More Than $2 Million in \u2064COVID-19 Relief\u2062 Fraud<\/a> \u200c &#8211; 6\/17\/2023<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/florida-immigrant-sentenced-in-4-2-million-covid-19-business-relief-fraud-scheme-5094099\">Florida Immigrant Sentenced in $4.2 Million COVID-19 \u200bBusiness Relief Fraud Scheme<\/a> &#8211; 3\/2\/2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The charges are the result of a\u2062 COVID-19 fraud enforcement sweep that took place nationwide from \u2062May through the end of July.<\/p>\n<p>According to the DOJ, of the 371 \u2062defendants charged, 119 either pleaded guilty or\u200c were convicted at\u2063 trial, \u2063and more than $57 \u200bmillion in court-ordered restitution was imposed.<\/p>\n<p>The sweep involved a \u2062total \u2064of 718 law enforcement actions, \u200cincluding 117 civil matters yielding more\u2062 than\u2064 $10.4 million in judgments.<\/p>\n<p>Many cases\u2062 involved \u2063charges related to pandemic unemployment insurance benefit fraud and fraud against the\u2062 Small Business Administration\u2019s two \u200clargest pandemic\u2063 programs: \u200cthe Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.<\/p>\n<p>Together,\u200d prosecutors and law enforcement \u200cworked to secure the forfeiture of more than $231.4 million.<\/p>\n<p>Announcing the results at \u2064a roundtable meeting of\u2062 senior \u200cDOJ, \u200claw\u200b enforcement, and Office of the Inspector General officials, Deputy\u200d Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the department\u2062 was also launching two \u2063new strike forces to assist in its ongoing crackdown on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-withholds-annual-report-on-deportations\/\" title=\"Biden Withholds Annual Report on Deportations\">pandemic-related fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/371-charged-for-covid-19-fraud-totaling-836-million-doj\/\" title=\"DOJ charges 371 for 6M COVID-19 fraud.\">law\u200b enforcement actions announced today reflect<\/a>\u200b the Justice\u200b Department\u2019s \u2063focus\u2014working \u2062with our\u2064 law enforcement partners \u200bnationwide\u2014on bringing to \u200cjustice those who stole from American businesses and families at a time of national\u2064 emergency,\u201d Ms.\u2063 Monaco said. \u201cThe two new strike forces\u200b launched today \u200dwill increase our\u2064 reach as we continue to pursue\u200b fraudsters and\u2063 recover taxpayer funds, no matter how long it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the Associated Press, it is possible that more \u2062than $280 billion in pandemic relief funds\u200d was stolen\u2063 by fraudsters,\u200c while another $123 billion \u200dwas wasted\u200d or misspent.<\/p>\n<p>The attorney general established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement \u200dTask\u200c Force \u2063in May 2021 to help prevent, investigate, and prosecute cases of COVID-19 fraud. In September \u20622022, the DOJ added to those efforts by launching three strike force teams at the U.S. attorney\u2019s offices \u200bin the\u200d Eastern and Central Districts \u200dof California, the Southern District of \u200bFlorida, and the District of Maryland.<\/p>\n<p>The new strike forces will operate out of the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The DOJ has formed two COVID-19 fraud strike forces, revealing charges against 371 individuals for stealing $836 million in relief funds. With over $1.4 billion seized, the Justice Department continues its efforts to combat pandemic-related fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1226,"featured_media":2009648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2009647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2009647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2009648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2009647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2009647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2009647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}