In article <uaufc7$3ikum$3@dont-email.me>
Rudy Canoza <dumbshit@protonmail.com> wrote:

> Stinking cunt Julie Su is directly responsible for $20 billion in losses and she gets rewarded with a federal job.

SAN FRANCISCO � California is slowly clawing back some of the
estimated $20 billion in unemployment money stolen by domestic
and international criminals, money earmarked for jobless relief
during the height of the pandemic.

It is, by far, the largest reported amount of pandemic related
fraud in any state.

But critics say the California money recovery effort remains
feeble, with too few people held to account, and that the real
fraud figure is likely far higher.

"It's too late and too little, and even the systems they
presently have can still be defrauded," says Jim Patterson, a
Republican state assemblyman and vice chair of the state's
Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review. "That's
not good enough."

Nationally, the total amount of unemployment insurance fraud is
staggering. The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector
General earlier this year told Congress that "at least $163
billion in pandemic UI benefits could have been paid improperly,
with a significant portion attributable to fraud."

The emphasis from federal and state officials was on pushing
that money out fast � $5 trillion in all to help ease the
biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. That
speediness also meant many claims weren't verified.

In California alone, fraudsters using stolen social security
numbers and stolen or made up names made off with what state
officials conservatively estimate is $20 billion. That's about
11% of the $177 billion in jobless benefits paid out for COVID-
19 relief.

And it wasn't hard: Someone claiming to be U.S. Sen. Dianne
Feinstein got paid. There was a John Doe and even a Mr. Poopy
Pants. They all got money.

"The key to the kingdom for unemployment insurance fraud
benefits was a Social Security number," McGregor Scott, a former
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District California, says.

The state hired Scott as special counsel for its Fraud Task
Force to help coordinate the investigation and prosecution of
pandemic-related unemployment fraud targeting the Employment
Development Department or EDD.

"And with the dark web and the black market for Social Security
numbers, these transnational criminal organizations have a very
large number of Social Security numbers, so that allowed them to
submit fraudulent applications - and get money," Scott says.

Investigators identified specific groups of fraudsters
So far, working with federal and local law enforcement and the
Bank of America � which administers California's jobless
benefits program � the state has recovered more than a billion
mostly by freezing EDD bank debit cards obtained through fraud.

"There's balances sitting on all these debit cards that the Bank
of America has recovered. And to date they have returned $1.1
billion dollars to the state," Scott tells NPR.

He says California's task force has learned that most of those
committing the fraud were domestic and international organized
crime rings, as well as prison inmates inside and outside the
state. Then he says there were what you might call run-of-the-
mill grifters. "People who are not part of really sophisticated
or organized criminal groups, but just sort of have made a
living of stealing from government programs in various forms
over the years. And this became the latest version of that."

So far, Scott says, the Fraud Task Force has also helped law
enforcement arrest more than 500 people and secure 203
convictions, including from a former EDD employee who stole more
than $4 million in COVID-19-related unemployment relief claims.
Gabriela Llerenas, who also uses the name "Maria G. Sandoval,"
was sentenced earlier this year to more than five years in
prison and ordered to pay nearly $4.3 million in restitution.

"Our job is to make sure that the FBI is talking to the local
D.A. or that they're getting the documents they need from EDD or
we are getting what we need from the Bank of America," Scott
says.

Nationally, the U.S. Labor Department Inspector General says so
far its investigations have resulted in more than 1,000 people
charged with unemployment insurance fraud since the start of the
pandemic.

Dozens of people have been arrested. But thousands of criminals
have faced no consequence and billions remain unaccounted for.

Outside experts think the real jobless fraud figure in
California is far higher than $20 billion.

"I believe the number is closer to 32.6 billion," Haywood
Talcove, CEO of the government division of LexisNexis Risk
Solutions says.

Talcove gets to that higher figure, in part, by looking at
federal Labor Department audits that show California averaged a
high jobless fraud and "improper payments" rate in the three
years before the pandemic. "And it didn't go down during the
pandemic, it only went up," Talcove says. "So you easily get to
that $32.6 billion number."

Indeed, the latest U.S. Labor Department audit report in
September shows that the California EDD's "improper payment"
rate in just the first six months of the pandemic was 36.6%.
What percentage of that was outright fraud or mistakes is
unclear but most believe the majority was the former.

Watchdogs call for more to be done, including a forensic audit
Whatever the real number of stolen funds, Talcove argues, the
bigger issue is the state has yet to put in place robust
controls like those used every day in American banking and other
private sector transactions.

California did add a drivers' license authentication system
called ID.me the state says is a "highly secure" identity
verification process. They also hired an outside data analysis
firm, among other moves.

But the state has not yet conducted a forensic audit of the
fraud. And Talcove says the added protections are simply not
enough.

"They are still getting their pockets picked," he says. "We go
on to the dark web every day and monitor these criminal groups
that are stealing from the unemployment insurance agencies. And
we see it."

In just the past few weeks, he says he's seen outside criminal
groups from Russia and elsewhere boasting they could still cheat
the state's jobless program. The groups, Talcove says, "were
advertising their sauce to get into the state of California,
which included purchasing a fake driver's license that gets
through their system."

Some California lawmakers are frustrated and outraged by what
they see as a slow trickle of money recovery and limited
accountability.

"The state of California has to stop patting itself on the back
that they're doing something. This is patchwork," says
Patterson, the Republican state Assemblyman. "We only got a
billion back out of maybe 30 or 35 billion. That's a terrible
batting average. We've got to do a whole lot better than that."

Patterson says his office today still gets flooded with calls
from constituents having a terrible time getting their
legitimate jobless claims filled while too few fraudsters have
been convicted.

Haywood Talcove says the level of pandemic fraud nationally
shows every state should be doing more to lock down their
systems against fraud.

"Not just for unemployment insurance, for their tax departments,
for their SNAP, for their TANF benefits, making sure there's an
enterprise approach to identity," he says. "What makes anyone
think that those criminals aren't now headed into other programs
after they just robbed the United States Treasury of $250
billion dollars?"

In California, law enforcement and others point to a bill
recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom making it easier for
prosecutors and police to seize assets, including cars and
property, from people who defrauded the unemployment program.

"We've got a case going right now where the guy bought a
motorcycle and we know he did it with EDD money," special
counsel Scott says. "So we've taken the motorcycle."

He says state expects to soon recover another large sum from
unemployment debit cards that still have money on them but have
been frozen because of fraud indicators.

Ultimately, Scott concedes, there likely will be billions
unrecovered.

"There's no doubt there will be a certain amount that will have
to be written off at the end," he says. "What that number is, I
don't know yet."

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1128561539/pandemic-fraud-
billions-california