DOJ Announces Director of COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement; Actions Alleging over $8 Billion in Fraud
- March 11, 2022
Associate Deputy Attorney General Kevin Chambers will serve as the Director for COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced at a March 10 roundtable event.
The appointment marks a “new phase” of the agency’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was convened in May 2021, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in her remarks.
To date, DOJ’s efforts have resulted in criminal charges against over 1,000 defendants with alleged losses exceeding $1.1 billion; the seizure of over $1 billion in Economic Injury Disaster Loan proceeds; and over 240 civil investigations into more than 1,800 individuals and entities for alleged misconduct in connection with pandemic relief loans totaling more than $6 billion, Monaco said.
The fraud investigations have focused on the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, Unemployment Insurance programs, and COVID-19 health care fraud enforcement.
Going forward the agency will “target large scale criminal organizations who are committing some of the largest and far-ranging fraud,” Chambers noted in his remarks at the roundtable.
Chambers also said the task force will focus on collecting large amounts of data in its fraud fighting efforts. “We are receiving an extraordinary amount of data from our state workforce agency partners . . . [which] holds the key to identifying and prosecuting certain types of fraud, including unemployment insurance fraud,” Chambers said.
DOJ “remains committed to using every available federal tool—including criminal, civil, and administrative actions — to combat and prevent COVID-19 related fraud,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said. “We will continue to hold accountable those who seek to exploit the pandemic for personal gain, to protect vulnerable populations, and to safeguard the integrity of taxpayer-funded programs.”