A staggering 371 Americans have been charged with stealing roughly $836 million in COVID relief funds — including gang members who used the money to hire hitmen, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
The charges were the result of a three-month-long joint investigation conducted by law enforcement agencies across the nation from May through July, according to the DOJ.
The department has focused on “bringing to justice those who stole from American businesses and families at a time of national emergency,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.
Sixty-three of those facing charges include gang members and defendants with connections to violent crimes.
Some used the funds — meant to help struggling citizens and business owners — were used to pay for murder-for-hire plots, acting director of the COVID-19 fraud enforcement task force Michael Galdo said.
Many of the alleged fraudsters misused pandemic unemployment insurance benefits as well as funds from Small Business Administration programs including the Paycheck Protection Program and economic injury disaster loans, according to the Justice Department.
Overall, the DOJ has seized more than $1.4 billion in misused pandemic-era relief funds and charged more than 3,000 Americans with crimes related to the fraud since it began investigating such corruption.
The Paycheck Protection Program, also known as the PPP loan program, has been the source of some of the worst fraud.
An astonishing 17% of loans cashed out from the program — about $200 billion — was stolen by fraudsters, according to a report from the Small Business Administration’s Office published last month.
The stolen cash was blown on Lamborghinis, vacation homes, private jet flights and Cartier jewelry, according to the report.
Of the 371 defendants facing criminal charges from the three-month sting, 119 were convicted or pleaded guilty during the sweep and another 117 were handled in civil court cases. Prosecutors and investigators secured more than $231.4 million in stolen funds, the DOJ said.
Last week, Miami real estate broker Daniela Rendon, 31, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for bilking the government out of $381,000 in COVID relief funds that she spent on a Bentley, a luxury apartment and cosmetic procedures.
“This latest action, involving over 300 defendants and over $830 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud, should send a clear message: the COVID-19 public health emergency may have ended, but the Justice Department’s work to identify and prosecute those who stole pandemic relief funds is far from over,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
