# Justice Department pandemic-relief announcements by year Justice Department press releases on pandemic relief fraud, counted by year and by what each one announces: 4,996 releases dated 2020 to September 22, 2026, out of 135,785 department releases in the same collection. Published at https://pandemicdarlings.com/data/doj-pandemic-enforcement-by-year/ . Compiled table; not part of release pandemic-darlings-data-v1-2026-07-10. Built 2026-09-23. ## Files | file | rows | bytes | sha256 | what it is | |---|---|---|---|---| | `doj-pandemic-enforcement-by-year.csv` | 56 | 2672 | `1c788711d8105d783f45157fff96f5af054527ae576a94c6302823b31bdf84e1` | one row per year and stage (the served table) | | `doj-pandemic-enforcement-releases.csv` | 4996 | 1416826 | `ce84b78c9b3d0a0e1a44abca18fe4860cc08f2890f524494666a851cfa624e63` | one row per in-scope press release | `dictionary.csv` describes every column of every file: measured type, blanks, distinct values, range, example and meaning. `code/` holds the programs that rebuild every number, and the independent second program that checks them. `SHA256SUMS` carries the SHA-256 of every file here. ## What this is One row is one calendar year and one stage. `releases` counts press releases. `distinct_announcements` counts them after merging releases that announce the same event, such as a settlement posted by both the Civil Division and a U.S. Attorney's office. `defendants_estimate` counts the people the distinct criminal announcements name, and `settlement_usd_sum` adds the amounts civil resolutions say will be paid. The companion file lists the 4,996 releases behind the table: date, headline, address on justice.gov, stage, programs named, people named and any settlement amount. ## How it was built A release is in scope when its headline or text names a pandemic relief program: the Paycheck Protection Program, COVID EIDL, pandemic unemployment benefits, the Employee Retention Credit, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, the Provider Relief Fund and the uninsured-testing program, CARES Act and American Rescue Plan money, rental assistance, economic impact payments, and the Feeding Our Future child-nutrition fraud. The task force's standard closing paragraph is removed first, so it cannot bring a release in by itself. Spanish and Portuguese versions of English releases are left out. The stage comes from the headline, or from the first 400 characters when the headline has no stage word. Releases that bundle unrelated cases (takedown summaries, office results, grand-jury lists) are OTHER, as are warnings and office news. The rules were checked by reading 415 releases. Of 102 the rules call charging announcements, 98 were (90 wholly about pandemic relief, 8 partly). Of 100 called civil resolutions, 100 were (98 wholly, 2 partly). In 2021 the charging rule was right 46 times in 46; in 2025, 47 in 50. Of 50 releases that mention fraud and COVID but fell outside the scope, none was clearly about a relief program and 4 were borderline. People named: the larger of the number the headline gives, the number the first sentence gives and the names printed with ages, and at least one. Counted by hand on 61 releases, the estimate was exact on 59. Every cell was computed twice, by independently written programs: 238 of 238 agree. ## Read this before you use it **These are announcements, not caseloads.** The department does not announce every charge or settlement, and the share it announces changes. Its COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force counted about 3,500 people charged by U.S. Attorneys' offices through 2023 in 2,388 cases, under a wider definition of pandemic fraud; the charging announcements here name about 2,100 people over the same years. Its year-end False Claims Act figures report about 270 PPP civil resolutions in fiscal 2023 and more than 250 pandemic-related ones in fiscal 2024; 20 and 42 were announced. **2026 is a partial year,** through September 22. **2024's people count runs high.** One district round-up is headlined "Over 100 Defendants" and one gang case appears under two headlines. `defendants_estimate_capped20` limits each release to 20 people. **Dollar sums follow the largest settlements.** 2024 includes Kabbage's agreement to pay up to $120 million, made in its bankruptcy; 2022 includes a $24.5 million settlement in which a PPP loan was one of several allegations. ## What it does not measure **A charge is an accusation.** A charging announcement reports allegations, and civil settlements commonly resolve allegations without a finding of liability. **It does not cover state cases, SBA's own actions, or cases that surface only in court filings.** ## Rebuild it `python3 code/reproduce_enforcement.py ` writes both CSVs and `numbers.json` in about four minutes. The two press-release files are the ones on the site's page for the Justice Department press-release collection; the top-up is rebuilt by `code/topup_api.py`, which reads the department's public press-release API sorted by creation date. `python3 code/check_enforcement.py /doj-pandemic-enforcement-by-year.csv` re-reads the releases, de-duplicates and counts them with separately written code and compares every cell. `python3 code/validate_handcheck.py` scores the rules against the 415 releases read by hand (`code/handcheck/`). ## Citation Justice Department pandemic-relief announcements by year, compiled from Justice Department press releases dated January 2020 to September 22, 2026.