WASHINGTON: Hundreds of people have been charged with the theft of more than $830 million in COVID-19 emergency aid following a nationwide operation conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, the US Justice Department announced Wednesday.
More than 60 of the defendants have alleged connections to organized crime, the department said, including members of a criminal gang accused of using stolen pandemic aid to pay for a murder.
“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,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The three-month operation, which ended in July, resulted in more than 300 people being charged, underscoring the pervasiveness of the fraud.
“We’ll stay at it for as long as it takes,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who led of a meeting of law enforcement officials livestreamed on the Justice Department’s website.
An Associated Press analysis published in June found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent.
Most of the money was grabbed from three large pandemic-relief initiatives designed to help small businesses and unemployed workers survive the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic. Nearly 3,200 defendants have been charged with COVID-19 aid fraud, according to the new Justice Department figures. About $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized.
The murder-for-hire case cited by Justice officials involved alleged members of a Milwaukee gang known as the Wild 100s, according to court records. Federal prosecutors said they stole millions of dollars in pandemic unemployment assistance and used part of the money to purchase guns, drugs and to pay to have a person killed.
The federal indictment identifies the victim in the Wisconsin case only by the initials N.B. and doesn’t specify how much of the plundered cash was used to finance the slaying.
The Justice Department also said Wednesday it was creating more strike forces to combat COVID-19 fraud in Colorado and New Jersey, joining those already in operation in California, Florida and Maryland.
“I don’t see an end,” said Mike Galdo, the department’s acting director for COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement. “Based on what we’ve seen from the scope of the fraud, I don’t see an end to our work.”
US Justice Department announces charges against hundreds of alleged COVID-19 fraudsters
https://arab.news/j5e2u
US Justice Department announces charges against hundreds of alleged COVID-19 fraudsters
- The three-month operation, which ended in July, resulted in more than 300 people being charged, underscoring the pervasiveness of the fraud
Over 1,400 Indonesians left Cambodian scam groups in five days: embassy
- Scammers working from hubs across Southeast Asia lure Internet users globally into fake romances and cryptocurrency investments
- Some foreign nationals have evacuated suspected scam compounds across Cambodia this month
PHNOM PENH: More than 1,400 Indonesians have left cyberscam networks in Cambodia in the last five days, Jakarta said on Wednesday, after Phnom Penh pledged a fresh crackdown on the illicit trade.
Scammers working from hubs across Southeast Asia, some willingly and others trafficked, lure Internet users globally into fake romances and cryptocurrency investments, netting tens of billions of dollars each year.
Some foreign nationals have evacuated suspected scam compounds across Cambodia this month as the government pledged to “eliminate” problems related to the online fraud industry, which the United Nations says employs at least 100,000 people in Cambodia alone.
Between January 16-20, 1,440 Indonesians left sites operated by online scam syndicates around Cambodia and went to the Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh for help, the mission said in a statement.
The “largest wave of arrivals” occurred on Monday when 520 Indonesians came to the embassy, it said.
Recent Cambodian law enforcement measures against scam operators meant more citizens would likely continue showing up at the embassy, it added.
“The main problem for them is that they do not possess passports and they are staying in Cambodia without valid immigration permits,” according to the embassy.
It urged Indonesians leaving scam sites to report to the embassy, which could assist them with securing travel documents and overstay fine waivers in order to return home.
Indonesia said this week that its embassy in Phnom Penh handled more than 5,000 consular service cases for citizens in Cambodia last year — more than 80 percent of which were related to Indonesians who “admitted to being involved with online scam syndicates.”
Cambodia arrested and deported Chinese-born tycoon Chen Zhi, accused of running Internet scam operations from Cambodia, to China this month.
Chen, a former adviser to Cambodia’s leaders, was indicted by US authorities in October.
Analysts say Chen’s extradition has left some of those running Internet scams from Cambodia fearing legal consequences — after the criminal enterprises ballooned for years — with some operators opting to release people or evacuate their compounds.
