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| Photo Credit: AP. |
U.S. Secret Service announced Friday that it had recovered $286 million in fraudulently obtained pandemic loans.
Conspirators
submitted Economic injury Disaster Loan applications by using fake or stolen
employment and personal information as well as using an online bank, Green Dot,
to conceal and move their criminal proceeds, the Secret Service cited an
investigation undertaken by its Orlando office, according to The Associated
Press.
The agency
reportedly worked with Green Dot to identify roughly 15,000 accounts and seized
$286 million connected to the accounts. It then returned the stolen funds to the
Small Business Administration, according to The Associated Press.
“This
forfeiture effort and those to come are a direct and necessary response to the unprecedented
size and scope of pandemic relief fraud,” said Kevin Chambers, director for
COVID-19 fraud enforcement at the Justice Department, according to The
Associated Press.
The Government
Accountability Office reported in March that while agencies distributed
COVID-19 funds quickly, “the tradeoff was that they did not have systems in
place to prevent and identify payment errors and fraud” due in part to “financial
management weaknesses,” The Associated Press reported.
The Secret
Service had initiated more than 3, 850 pandemic related fraud investigations
since 2020. The agency has sieved over $1.4 billion in fraudulently obtained
funds and helped to return $2.3 billion to state unemployment insurance
programs.