The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, Sept. 14, announced the establishment of a strike force team in Los Angeles created to fight and prevent coronavirus-related fraud.
The Los Angeles strike force team — a joint effort with authorities in Sacramento — is comprised of federal prosecutors and agents from the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and other agencies.
“Criminals took advantage of the worst pandemic in a century to line their pockets with public money intended for struggling businesses and workers forced to sit idle,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie S. Christensen of the Central District of California. “Our office’s participation in the COVID-19 Strike Force reflects our determination to maximize our resources to root out and punish wrongdoers who used a national emergency to steal from American taxpayers.”
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said that, since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago, the DOJ has seized more than $1.2 billion in relief funds that criminals were attempting to steal, and charged over 1,500 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country. “But our work is far from over,” he said. “The Department will continue to work relentlessly to combat pandemic fraud and hold accountable those who perpetrate it.”
The three strike force teams will operate out of U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Southern District of Florida, the District of Maryland, and a joint effort between the Central and Eastern Districts of California.
The DOJ’s efforts to combat COVID-19 related fraud schemes have operated on numerous fronts, including cases and investigations involving the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, Unemployment Insurance programs and COVID-19 health care fraud enforcement, prosecutors said.
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