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A federal district judge in Miami sentenced the last of five defendants for his role in a health care fraud scheme operated out of a physical therapy clinic in Doral.

BOSTON – The former owner of a massage parlor was sentenced yesterday in connection with filing for and obtaining fraudulent pandemic-related loans for her illicit business where workers engaged in commercial sex acts with customers.

BOSTON – A Springfield woman was sentenced yesterday for her involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19-related unemployment assistance.

BOSTON – The former owner of a massage parlor pleaded guilty yesterday in connection with filing fraudulent applications for pandemic-related loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in which she failed to disclose that her employees engaged in commercial sex acts with customers.

BOSTON – A New York Man was sentenced today on charges arising from a scheme to fraudulently obtain business loans and unemployment pandemic relief funds made available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

We assessed how AMS designed the Farmers to Families Food Box Program solicitation, whether AMS awarded the contracts in accordance withrequirements, and what methodology AMS used to allocate funding.

Our ongoing inspection is reviewing P‑EBT—this report provides the results on Objectives 1, 3, and 4 for P‑EBT funding and outreach activities, and the procedures and criteria FNS used to approve State plans.

BOSTON – A Stoughton man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston in connection with filing a fraudulent loan application in order to obtain over $400,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan funds.

Tacoma – A former employee of Washington State’s Employment Security Department pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to three federal felonies for his scheme to exploit his employment for personal enrichment and to fraudulently distribute at least $360,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.

Tampa, Florida –United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Melinda Sue Hernandez (33, Ruskin) has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Hernandez faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy count, as well as a consecutive two years in federal prison for the aggravated identity theft count.

Eight defendants were charged in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania today with scheming to fraudulently obtain more than $7 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), and pre-pandemic Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.

Ocala, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Levelle Joseph Harris (36, Kissimmee) has surrendered pursuant to an indictment charging him with 14 counts of wire fraud. Each count is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Harris had been indicted on June 7, 2022.

BOSTON – A Leicester man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Worcester for his involvement in fraud schemes affecting the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) Loan and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) Programs in Massachusetts and Nevada.

BOSTON – A Winchester man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with filing fraudulent loan applications seeking more than $13 million in forgivable loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) for COVID-19 relief through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The purpose of this memorandum is to notify stakeholders of the decision to cancel the EAC OIG audit of the administration of HAVA funds by the State of Georgia.

A South Florida federal grand jury has charged a Coral Springs police officer with fraudulently applying to the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) for a COVID-19 relief advance grant and low-interest loan.

As a part of our audit of the State of Louisiana’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and our work related to the Single Audit of the State of Louisiana for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, we performed procedures at the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) to provide assurances on financial information that is significant to the state’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report; evaluate the effectiveness of LWC’s internal controls over financial reporting and compliance; and determine whether LWC complied with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, we determined whether management...

To evaluate the State’s readiness to provide essential information needed to respond to the global pandemic, this operational audit focused on COVID-19 data collection and reporting processes at the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency), Department of Health, and Division of Emergency Management during the period March 1, 2020, through October 9, 2020. As subsequently described, the number of entities reporting data, apparent inaccurate or incomplete data reported to the State by those entities, and the lack of effective access controls in the systems used to gather data, impacted the...

We have audited the accompanying financial statements of the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund (Trust Fund), an individual nonshared proprietary fund of the State of Illinois, Department of Employment Security, as of and for the year ended June 30, 2020. We found that the Department outsourced unemployment benefit claims processing to a service organization for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and the corresponding Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefits. The system processing these claims had material weaknesses in the design and operation of internal controls and...

The objective of this desk review is to evaluate the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma documentation supporting the uses of its Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) proceeds as reported in GrantSolutions, and to assess risk of unallowable use of funds. The scope of our review will include obligation and expenditure data as reported in the GrantSolutions portal.

The objective of this desk review is to evaluate Commonwealth of Virginia documentation supporting the uses of its Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) proceeds as reported in GrantSolutions, and to assess risk of unallowable use of funds. The scope of our review will include obligation and expenditure data as reported in the GrantSolutions portal.

During our audit, we identified internal control and compliance findings that we believe are either directly, or indirectly, related to a lack of resources available for processing and adjudicating unemployment claims with the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency. To address the rapid rise in unemployment, the federal government provided additional federal funding to states and implemented several new unemployment-related benefits. The Commission struggled to adapt to these changes due to a lack of both staffing and technology resources. As a result, the Commission was not able to...

The Emergency Rental Assistance program helps individuals affected by the public health emergency to cover the cost of rent and utilities. Through June 2021, DOA received $434.7 million in federal funds through the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan Act for the program. From March 2021 through September 2021, the program provided $64.0 million in benefits for 15,968 households. We make recommendations for DOA to improve how it administers the Emergency Rental Assistance program, including by improving the program’s application process, modifying the process for...

We have audited the financial statements of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, the aggregate discretely presented component units, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the State of Tennessee as of and for the year ended June 30, 2021, and the related notes to the financial statements, which collectively comprise the State of Tennessee’s basic financial statements. The purpose of this report is solely to describe the scope of our testing of internal control and compliance and the results of that testing, and not to provide an opinion on the...

The Student Success Act provides an extra $1 billion of tax money a year for early childhood education and K-12 school improvement. It requires the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) to track district performance and work with districts to improve, building on other recent state and federal initiatives and bringing the state the closest it has been to meeting the funding recommendations of the Quality Education Model. This advisory report identifies five key risks we found that could undermine K-12 system improvement as the state implements the 2019 Student Success Act. The report draws on...

As a part of our audit of the Louisiana State University (LSU) and our work related to the Single Audit of the State of Louisiana for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, we performed procedures at the LSU and Related Campuses to provide assurances on financial information that is significant to the LSU's financial statements; evaluate the effectiveness of LSU and Related Campuses’ internal controls over financial reporting and compliance; and determine whether LSU and Related Campuses complied with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, we determined whether management has taken...

From May 21, 2021 to November 9, 2021, the Louisiana Department of Education (DOE) paid $486,050 on two emergency contracts without first obtaining the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (BESE’s) approval. The Louisiana Administrative Code requires that professional and consulting services contracts recommended by the Superintendent of Education at, or above, a certain amount (currently $50,000) be approved by BESE. By paying contractors for professional and consulting services prior to obtaining BESE’s approval, DOE may have violated a provision of the Louisiana...

This audit report provides the results of our evaluation of the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s (LWC) Unemployment Insurance program and federally-funded COVID-19 pandemic-related unemployment assistance programs. The purpose of this audit was to determine if the IRS Form 1099-Gs (1099s) filed by LWC with the IRS accurately reported the amount of unemployment benefits paid to claimants during calendar years 2020 and 2021. Overall, we found that LWC filed accurate 1099s for unemployment benefits paid to 698,372 (99.7%) of 700,204 claimants in calendar year 2020. However, we found that LWC did...

This Insights Report highlights identity fraud related challenges in federal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. By evaluating previous oversight work in this space from members of the PRAC’s Identity Fraud Reduction and Redress Working Group, this report presents best practices to reduce identity fraud before it occurs and to assist victims of identity fraud if it does occur. These best practices may be helpful for federal agencies to utilize moving forward. This report also identifies that across the federal government there is a larger focus on reducing identity fraud up front, while...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Columbus woman was arrested in Utah on federal charges related to stealing the identity of a baby who died as an infant. The woman allegedly used the infant’s identity to obtain a passport, a student pilot license, a job as a flight attendant, admission into The Ohio State University and pandemic relief loans.

A federal jury in Detroit convicted a Michigan man today for a wire fraud and money laundering scheme to obtain more than $4.1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

This flash report presents our finding concerning duplicate Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) grant awards to institutions of higher education.1 This report includes a recommendation to enhance the U.S. Department of Education’s (Department) ability to prevent, identify, and correct duplicate HEERF grant awards.We identified 25 duplicate HEERF grant awards that OPE made to 24 schools, totaling about $73 million, which had not been corrected and documented in G5 as of August 2021. OPE officials stated that their processes for reviewing and approving HEERF applications and awards...