White House pitches $1.6 billion plan to combat Covid relief fraud

Stefani Reynolds

The White House on Thursday laid out its plan to target pandemic fraudsters and recapture stolen relief funds distributed under both the Trump and Biden administrations.

A top White House official said the goal was to provide $600 million to investigate and prosecute systemic pandemic fraud, a similar amount to bolster fraud prevention and $400 million to help victims of identity theft.

"The president wanted to make sure that we had a special and concerted effort to prosecute and punish the worst offenders of pandemic fraud," Gene Sperling, who is overseeing implementation of the White House’s American Rescue Plan, said on a call with reporters previewing the proposal.

Full story at Yahoo News.

By Zoë Richards and Sarah Fitzpatrick and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner and Summer Concepcion.