The Justice Department has created three Strike Force teams to improve its efforts to fight and prevent COVID-19 fraud.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement Wednesday that the department confiscated over $1.2 billion in relief funds that people were trying to steal and charged over 1,500 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country.
“These Strike Force teams will build on the Department’s historic enforcement efforts to deter, detect, and disrupt pandemic fraud wherever it occurs,” Garland said. “The Department will continue to work relentlessly to combat pandemic fraud and hold accountable those who perpetrate it.”
