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The PRAC’s Data Sharing Working Group recently collaborated with subject matter experts from government agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to share the data tools and techniques they use to help protect pandemic relief dollars.

Michael E. Horowitz, Chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), announced the release of the PRAC’s Semiannual Report to Congress. The report covers the period from October 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021.

The Inspectors General (IG) community is committed to holding those who defraud the American public accountable. Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) and their investigators have been central in bringing charges against 250 of the 474 who allegedly defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, and Unemployment Insurance.

Two different pandemic response programs used self-certification by applicants as a primary requirement to determine eligibility and experienced increased fraud due to that requirement. The Small Business Administration (SBA) and Department of Labor (DOL) Offices of Inspectors General (OIG) found in recent reports that self-certification is a major fraud risk that cuts across program and agency boundaries.

Roosevelt Gulley, 42, of Sacramento, was sentenced Monday to four years and six months in prison and ordered to pay $575,425 in restitution for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to unemployment insurance fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Texas woman was sentenced today to 21 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $28,000 in federal disaster relief money by falsely claiming that she was a Pasadena resident living in a property damaged by the Eaton Fire and for fraudulently obtaining more than $54,000 in jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dashawn Hunter, 29, of Mineral, was sentenced to over four years in prison for a COVID era unemployment insurance fraud scheme.

URBANA, Ill. – A federal grand jury indicted an Urbana woman, Titianna Ammons, of the 1100 block of North Busey Avenue, on three counts of wire fraud for allegedly defrauding the U.S. Department of Labor and Illinois Department of Employment Security from October of 2020 to October of 2021.

A Florida woman was convicted for her role in a multi-state scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits.