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The Department of Taxation and Finance is responsible for administering more than 40 State and localities, including the sales and use tax. Provisions of State Tax impose a tax on sales of taxable personal property and certain services, with some exemptions and require vendors that makes these sales to register for a Certificate of Authority, collect the tax from customers, and remit the tax to the State. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted sales tax collections due to restrictions on businesses throughout 2020 and 2021. Collections have since begun to rebound, and, as of May 2021...

At the time we initiated this review, the Montgomery County Council had appropriated almost $24 million through three separate resolutions to provide rental assistance to residents negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The appropriations funded the COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program, administered by the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County and the COVID-19 Rental Relief Program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. We conducted this review to determine (1) if vulnerabilities exist in either program that create opportunities for fraud or abuse...

SAN JUAN, P.R. – On October 27 and 28, 2021, the Federal Grand Jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned six separate indictments charging eight (8) individuals with fraud against the Unemployment Insurance and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, announced W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. These cases were investigated by various federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (USDOL-OIG), and the Social Security...

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act made available $5 billion in supplemental CDBG funding for grants to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic (CDBG-CV grants). Because of similarities, we reviewed 132 CDBG-DR program audits and evaluations issued from May 2002 to March 2020 to summarize the common CDBG-DR program weaknesses and risks for CPD to consider to help its CDBG-CV grantees effectively and efficiently manage their CDBG-CV program operations.We found that grantees had common areas of weaknesses and risks in the...

We conducted a state high‑risk audit of the California Department of Education’s management of the federal funding it received to help local educational agencies respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic. The following report details our conclusion that California Department of Education must improve its oversight of these funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund to ensure that local educational agencies spend the funding before the associated deadlines and comply with relevant requirements.

The Department of Justice, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Thursday announced a civil enforcement action against defendants Xlear Inc. and Nathan Jones for alleged violations of the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act and the FTC Act.

Odunayo “Baba” Oluwalade, age 25, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to a federal wire fraud conspiracy in connection with a scheme purporting to sell COVID-19 vaccines.