A Hollywood film producer allegedly tried to use $1.7 million from the federal coronavirus business relief fund to pay personal credit card bills. Two New England men allegedly applied for more than half a million in refundable loans through the program by claiming to have dozens of employees at four businesses. They had none.
Many fraudsters have submitted false state unemployment claims. In Washington state, the unemployment system temporarily crashed under the weight of hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for fake claims.
These are just a few examples of what prosecutors say are tens of thousands of attempts to rip off governments by fraudulently filing for expanded unemployment benefits or lying on applications for the Paycheck Protection Program, which was designed to assist small businesses forced to close or drastically cut back due to the pandemic.
Because of the urgent need, officials designed the programs to send out money quickly, but that speed also presented more opportunities for scams, experts said.