COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force

Summary

A memorandum dated May 17, 2021 from the Attorney General to the Deputy Attorney General, heads of Department litigating components, United States Attorneys and other Department components, with the subject COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. It states that the Department of Justice has charged nearly 600 defendants to date with crimes involving over $600 million in 56 federal districts. The memorandum announces the establishment of a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, to be led and organized by the Deputy Attorney General, and lists the Department components and inter-agency partners, including offices of Inspectors General and the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, invited to serve on it. It states that the Task Force will help identify cross-governmental resources and investigative techniques and will enhance a public awareness campaign.

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May 17, 2021
MEMORANDUM FOR THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
HEADS OF DEPARTMENT LITIGATING COMPONENTS
UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS
EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
ORGANIZED CRIME DRUG ENFORCEMENT TASK
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INTERPOL WASHINGTON
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FROM:
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL I ff;VPA/'
SUBJECT:
COVID-19 FRAUD ENFORCEMENT TASK FORCE
Over the past year, the Department of Justice has led an historic enforcement initiative to detect
and disrupt COVID-19 related fraud, charging nearly 600 defendants to date with crimes involving over
$600 million in 56 federal districts around the country. The Department has secured civil injunctions
against persons or companies selling fraudulent products, seized loan proceeds from fraudulent
applications, and convicted criminals who have defrauded consumers and misappropriated federal
dollars intended to support struggling individuals and businesses.
The pandemic has given rise to a variety of forms of fraud. Those intent on unlawfully profiting
from the pandemic have capitalized on scarcity to peddle fake vaccines and sell millions of counterfeit
N95 masks and other personal protective equipment to heath care facilities desperate to protect frontline
workers. They have inflated their payrolls to obtain loans larger than they were eligible to receive.
They have used shell companies and received assistance that they unlawfully diverted. They have set up
operations to submit identical loan applications in the names of multiple companies. And they have
fraudulently misrepresented the products or services they sold to the federal government. Some of these
crimes are unique to this pandemic; many, like identity theft to secure unemployment insurance, are
variations on common schemes.
Since the start of the pandemic, our COVID-19 related fraud investigations have drawn on the
expertise of multiple components of the Justice Department as well as other federal departments and
agencies. Our work to uncover fraud schemes and successfully pursue them has been aided by our
ability to leverage data, analytic capabilities, and lessons learned from across government.

Subject: COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force
Page 2
To expand and build upon this work, today I am announcing the establishment of a COVID-19
Fraud Enforcement Task Force. The Task Force will bring together the full power of the federal
government to bolster our enforcement efforts. Within the Department, the Task Force will include
heads of litigating components, United States Attorneys, the Executive Office of United States
Attorneys, the Federal Bureau oflnvestigation, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force
(OCDETF), the Department of Justice Inspector General, the National Unemployment Insurance Fraud
Task Force, and INTERPOL Washington, or their designees. 1 The Task Force will be led and organized
by the Deputy Attorney General.
Our key interagency partners have been invited to serve on the Task Force. These partners
include the offices of Inspectors General for the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury,
the Small Business Administration, the Depaiiment of Homeland Security, the Social Security
Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Department of Health and Human
Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Federal
Reserve Board; the Defense Criminal Investigative Service; the Food and Drug Administration's Office
of Criminal Investigations; Homeland Security Investigations; IRS-Criminal Investigation; the U.S.
Postal Inspection Service; the U.S. Secret Service; the Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration; the Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network; the Special
Inspector General for Pandemic Relief; and the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC).
The Task Force will augment and incorporate existing coordination mechanisms within the
Department and will continue to work in close coordination with other efforts underway tluoughout the
federal government, such as the PRAC, which has made great strides in promoting transparency and
suppmiing independent oversight of relief funds. The PRAC has also recently formed a fraud task force
that will use data analytics to support federal law enforcement's COVID-19 related fraud investigative
efforts.
In paiiicular, the Task Force will help us: (1) to identify cross-governmental resources,
investigative techniques, and information for uncovering fraud schemes and the actors who perpetrate
them; (2) to harness what we have learned about COVID-19 related and other types of fraud from past
efforts; and (3) to deter, detect, and disrupt future fraud wherever it occurs.
Our experience has shown that a well-informed public is one of our strongest weapons in
com batting fraud. The Department has already increased public awareness of this fraud through alerts,
publicizing enforcement efforts, and encouraging members of the public to report criminal conduct to
1 These components will also secure representation from the leadership of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section, Money
Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and Office of International Affairs;
the Civil Division's Commercial Litigation Branch (Fraud Section) and Consumer Protection Branch; the National Cyber
Investigative Joint Task Force; the OCDETF Fusion Center and OCDETF's International Organized Crime Intelligence and
Operations Center.

Subject: COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force
Page 3
the National Center for Disaster Fraud. The Task Force will enhance our public awareness campaign to
educate individuals and businesses about the threat of COVID-19 related fraud, how Americans can take
steps to protect themselves, and how whistleblowers can report corporate fraud.
The Department of Justice will use every available federal tool -
including criminal, civil, and
administrative actions -
to combat and prevent COVID-19 related fraud. We look forward to working
with our federal government colleagues to bring to justice those who seek to profit unlawfully from the
pandemic.

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