According to the U.S. Secret Service, criminals stole close to $100 Billion in pandemic relief funds.

The fraudsters stole the funds from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. They also used the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program program, and another program that was created to provide unemployment assistance funds throughout the nation. 

The agency claims that more than $2.3Billion in stolen funds has been recovered. More than 100 suspects have been arrested. They range across the entire spectrum of organized and individual criminalities. The government has spent about $3.5 trillion in Covid relief money since early 2020, when the pandemic began.

Secret Service is an expert in financial fraud and has also been known to play a more prominent role in protecting the president. The Secret Service announced the new appointment of a coordinator for national pandemic relief to manage its extensive investigations into fraud cases stemming from that huge theft.

Roy Dotson (Assistant Special Agent in Charge) was named to this new post at the agency. 

In an interview with CNBC Dotson stated that criminals are now more likely to obtain the money because of the easy access.

The programs could be found online, so there is no question about that. He said that this opened up the possibility for criminal actors to enter that program. “It was important to help people who were really in need, without fault of anyone. 

Dotson indicated that there are currently more than 900 open investigations by the Secret Service into pandemic fraud.

Dotson stated that the pot had a large amount of money and it was causing a broad range. You have the usual transnational and domestic organized criminal groups as well as individuals who take advantage. There are many patterns that we create and intelligence that we use to investigate that I don’t have the time or ability to go into. We have mapped some of the characteristics that distinguish different groups. 

Dotson will assume his new position. He is currently based at the Jacksonville field office and oversees all investigations into crypto fraud. The criminals usually convince the victims to send money to crypto wallets, which can be used in illegal schemes and open accounts to allow them to laundering. 

He stated that “the primary problem” is not the volume of loans and fraudulent claims, but the extent of unemployment insurance benefits. The number of people who receive them, regardless of whether it was a money mule or an actual recipient, is staggering.”

To help small business owners, the government launched the Paycheck Protection Program last year and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program. Each program has been fraught with issues. Uncontrollable fraud could have cost billions in the form of fraudulent transactions, according to a report by an inspector general at Labor Department.

Fraudsters were attracted to the rapid rollout of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. In a March report, the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General stated that $89 billion of $896 billion of unemployment funds could have been improperly paid. A significant amount of this was due to fraud.

CNBC reported earlier in the year that at least four investment platforms were opened by tech-savvy criminals. Investigators claimed that the digital platforms are simple to use as a way of transferring money by opening accounts using stolen identities.

According to authorities, more than $100 million worth of fraudulent funds were transferred through investment accounts after Congress passed the CARES Act in March.