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Greed knows no borders.
Whether it was a fraudster crossing state lines to defraud multiple states' pandemic relief programs or a bad foreign actor who wanted to get in on the action, theft of U.S. taxpayer funds during the pandemic went beyond boundaries.
Below you’ll find notable cases where the oversight and law enforcement communities took our fight against fraud international.
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Attempting to defraud half the country?
Two Nigerian citizens living in Canada were involved in a pandemic-related unemployment insurance fraud scheme in which they used the stolen identities of more than 630 American workers. The pair submitted over 1,700 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims in more than 25 states, seeking $25 million and ultimately obtaining $2.4 million.
The first co-conspirator pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 3+ years in prison, and ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution after being detained in Germany on his way back to Canada.
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North of the border fraud
Two New York residents were charged with attempting to defraud a Canadian health care provider out of $8.2 million by allegedly promising to provide over 12 million face masks during the early part of the pandemic. The defendants allegedly directed the Canadian company to wire the money into a third-party escrow account and ultimately into the bank accounts of one of the defendants.
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Fraud passport stamped
A Cameroonian national was sentenced to a dozen years in prison, restitution of $325,856, and forfeiture of $547,310 for his role in a business email compromise (BEC) fraud scheme of more than $2 million. After being indicted on the BEC charges, he fled the United States to the United Kingdom on a fraudulently obtained passport where it was uncovered that he was involved in a pandemic-related unemployment fraud scheme.
Working with co-conspirators, the fraud ring gained access to unauthorized email accounts via identity theft, stole victims' bank account information, and set up fraudulent shell companies to launder the stolen funds.
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Beamers, watches, and transatlantic fraud
A Romanian husband and wife pleaded guilty for their roles in a 14-person fraud ring that defrauded the California unemployment system of over $5.2 million. The pair took tens of thousands of unemployment insurance funds for themselves and facilitated payments to other co-conspirators. Additionally, they sent nearly $300,000 in stolen funds, a BMW, and luxury watches to their associates in Romania. The Romanian government assisted the United States in seizing the vehicle and watches. The pair has agreed to forfeit the BMW and watches, as well as pay over $300,000 collectively in restitution as they await sentencing.
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A domestic case with international flair
A seven-person fraud ring was charged with theft of over $16 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds. The group submitted more than 300 applications seeking over $40 million for companies they purportedly owned in Illinois and Florida. They allegedly inflated employee counts and annual revenues of their companies in their applications. Three of the seven members have been convicted and sentenced to prison and ordered to pay millions in restitution. The other four are at large and believed to be hiding overseas.
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We've 'bot' 19 million problems
A Chinese national was charged for his alleged role in creating and operating a botnet that was designed to commit cyber-attacks and large-scale fraud. It is believed that this botnet compromised over 19 million IP addresses, including 600,000+ within the United States. Those IP addresses were sold for millions of dollars to cybercriminals across the world to facilitate covert fraudulent acts, including acts of pandemic-related fraud.
It is estimated that 560,000 fraudulent pandemic unemployment insurance claims originated from compromised IP addresses, resulting in fraud losses of $5.9 billion. Additionally, another estimated 47,000 EIDL applications originated from compromised IP addresses. Financial institutions in the United States identified millions of dollars of loss in pandemic relief programs originating from IP addresses compromised by the botnet scheme.
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🌎Global Partners🌏
In July 2021, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee's
Data Sharing Working Group hosted an International Data Forum
that brought together subject matter experts from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to share the tools and data techniques they use to find fraud.
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Disclaimer: An indictment is a formal accusation of a serious crime. However, all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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