{"id":110743,"date":"2022-09-14T05:23:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T12:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=110743"},"modified":"2022-09-14T21:25:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T04:25:38","slug":"la-strike-force-team-targets-pandemic-relief-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2022\/09\/14\/la-strike-force-team-targets-pandemic-relief-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"LA strike force team targets pandemic relief fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/fraud-arrest.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-81113\" src=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/fraud-arrest.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"241\" \/><\/a>The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, Sept. 14,\u00a0 announced the establishment of a strike force team in Los Angeles created to fight and prevent coronavirus-related fraud.<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles strike force team &#8212; a joint effort with authorities in Sacramento &#8212; 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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie S. Christensen of the Central District of California.\u00a0&#8220;Our office&#8217;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0&#8220;But our work is far from over,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The Department will continue to work relentlessly to combat pandemic fraud and hold accountable those who perpetrate it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The three strike force teams will operate out of U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Offices in the Southern District of Florida, the District of Maryland, and a joint effort between the Central and Eastern Districts of California.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, Sept. 14,\u00a0 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 &#8212; a joint effort with authorities in Sacramento &#8212; is comprised of federal prosecutors and agents from the FBI, the U.S. Secret [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":81113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719,1496],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110749,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110743\/revisions\/110749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}