WED, AUG 23
CNBC-Spencer Kimball
The DOJ has filed criminal charges against 371 individuals in a nationwide sweep targeting $836 million in stolen Covid-19 relief money.
More than 60 of the defendants had connections to violent crime and transnational criminal networks.
In one case, 30 members of a street gang in Wisconsin allegedly used money from an unemployment fraud scheme to solicit murder for hire and purchase firearms and drugs, law enforcement said.
Federal law enforcement charged hundreds of people in a nationwide sweep targeting more than $830 million in Covid-19 fraud, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
The DOJ filed criminal charges against 371 individuals and recovered $231 million in stolen money, the department said in a release. More than 60 of the defendants had connections to violent crime and transnational criminal networks.
In one case, 30 members of a street gang in Wisconsin allegedly used money from an unemployment fraud scheme to solicit murder for hire and purchase firearms and drugs, said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco at a roundtable meeting of law enforcement officials Wednesday.
In another case, four people were charged in an international pandemic relief fraud and money laundering scheme involving Nigeria, Monaco said.
Many of the individuals targeted in the sweep are accused of fraudulently applying for assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans used to support small businesses during the pandemic, according to a DOJ press release.
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