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The US Secret Service has seized more than $1.2 billion in relief funds obtained by fraudsters in two years of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the agency is stepping up its efforts to claw back the billions more that Covid-19-related fraud has cost the economy by tapping a senior official to work with law enforcement agencies across the country on the issue. Roy Dotson has spent nearly 3 decades in law enforcement. He will be the agency’s point person for working with big banks to seize stolen Covid-19 recovery funds and with the Department of Justice to help crackdown on the scammers. The major objective is to maximize investigative impact and recover stolen money. Dotson is also the assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Jacksonville field office.

Moreover, the Secret Service said its work has led to the return of more than $2.3 billion in ill-gotten gains and one hundred people have been arrested. But the agency still has more than 900 active criminal investigations into Covid-19-related financial fraud. Dotson said he needs to see these investigations have a bigger impact. It clearly indicates seizing big tranches of stolen funds and with the help of the Justice Department to put prolific scammers behind bars. Dotson said, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my career as far as the magnitude and the scope”. He was referring to COVID-related financial fraud. It is part of a continued effort, 21 months into the coronavirus pandemic by US law enforcement officials to prosecute well-organized criminal groups. They have fleeced programs for unemployment insurance and small business loans.

The news came as President Joe Biden is set to give a speech on Tuesday on the recent surge in Omicron variant coronavirus cases. The roughly $2 trillion coronavirus relief package known as the CARES Act that became law in March 2020 brought unemployment benefits and loans to millions of Americans. But it also opened up opportunities for criminals to exploit those programs by fraudulently applying for aid. A former FBI analyst and now director of threat intelligence at security firm Abnormal Security Crane Hassold said, “The CARES Act was essentially a scammer’s World Series and Super Bowl rolled up into one. Using platforms like Telegram or WhatsApp, scammers openly share techniques and best practices about how to most effectively submit fraudulent pandemic-related claims in channels dedicated to the topic”.