• Criminals have stolen close to $100 billion in pandemic relief funds, the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday.
• The stolen funds were diverted by fraudsters from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and a another program.
• Recovered funds include more than $400 million from PayPal and Green Dot Corporation. The government has shelled out about $3.5 trillion in Covid relief money since early 2020, when the pandemic began.

Criminals have stolen close to $100 billion in pandemic relief funds, the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday.

The stolen funds were diverted by fraudsters from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and a another program set up to dole out unemployment assistance funds nationwide.

More than $2.3 billion in stolen funds have been recovered so far, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 suspects who span the spectrum from individuals to organized groups, according to the agency. The government has shelled out about $3.5 trillion in Covid relief money since early 2020, when the pandemic began.

The Secret Service, which specializes in financial fraud in addition to its better-known role in presidential protection, also announced the appointment of a new national pandemic fraud recovery coordinator to oversee its sprawling investigations into the enormous number of fraud cases resulting from all that theft…read more.