ICYMI: USA Today: 'You cannot hide': Biden administration to go after scammers who stole billions in COVID relief

Today, President Biden introduced a sweeping pandemic anti-fraud proposal to go after fraudsters and scammers who preyed on Americans during the unprecedented health and economic emergency; prevent fraud and identity theft going forward; and help victims. The President's plan punishes those who engaged in major fraud, and will save taxpayers money, often with a more than 10-to-1 return on investment.

There was a historic degree of outright fraud and identity theft during the pandemic, which was the result of decades of underinvestment in basic government technology, the crush of demand during the pandemic, and ill-considered decisions by the Trump Administration to take down basic fraud controls. The American Rescue Plan helped invest in preventing fraud and investigating criminal syndicates—but there is more to do.

USA Today: 'You cannot hide': Biden administration to go after scammers who stole billions in COVID relief
[Michael Collins, 3/2/23]

The Biden administration announced a series of measures Thursday to track down and punish fraudsters who scammed billions of taxpayer dollars that were supposed to provide relief to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We want to not only capture them and get their funds, we want to send a signal to them that you can run, but you cannot hide," said Gene Sperling, a Biden senior adviser who is overseeing the implementation of the COVID-relief plan.

President Joe Biden's administration is planning to a $1.6 billion package to crack down on fraud in COVID relief funds.

The latest

• The administration's plans call for creating 10 Department of Justice "strike forces" that will include U.S. attorneys and other law enforcement officials to investigate COVID-relief fraud and help recover stolen tax dollars. The teams will target criminal syndicates and other major fraudsters. Three strike forces already are in place and have recovered millions of dollars in stolen relief funds, officials said.
• The administration also will propose increasing the statute of limitations to 10 years for fraud involving the pandemic Unemployment Insurance program, which has been hit especially hard by scammers.
• Some $300 million will be distributed to inspectors general at the Small Business Administration, the Department of Labor and the staff of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a government watchdog over pandemic spending. The money would be used to hire investigators and make sure they have the resources needed to pursue specialized cases of pandemic fraud.
• In his proposed budget to be released next week, Biden will offer a package of legislative reforms to prevent, detect and recover payments made improperly through the Unemployment Insurance program.
• Federal grants would be made to states to help modernize their information technology systems to enable them to respond more quickly to fraud, decrease erroneous payments and provide more efficient claims processing.
• New initiatives also would be put in place to identify victims of identity theft, including an early warning system to stop potentially fraudulent transactions before they occur and a one-stop shop to report identity crimes.