US COVID-19 Subsidy Fraud Totals 119 Trillion Won... 'Unemployment Benefit Fraud Claims' Most Frequent

Ministry of Land's Secret Protection Bureau: "Over 900 Investigations, 100 Arrests"

On March 17th, people seeking to claim unemployment benefits lined up in front of the "One-Stop Career Center" in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Photo by AP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The U.S. government announced that nearly 120 trillion won in budget is estimated to have been fraudulently claimed during the distribution of COVID-19 government subsidies.

On the 21st (local time), according to U.S. ABC News and others, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Secret Service (SS) stated that approximately $100 billion (about 119 trillion won) of COVID-19 subsidies provided to businesses and citizens struggling due to the pandemic are estimated to have been fraudulently claimed.

The SS is an agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responsible for close protection of the U.S. President and key government officials, as well as investigating cybercrimes.

The amount corresponds to nearly 3% of the $3.4 trillion (about 4,000 trillion won) relief funds distributed by the federal government in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic under the CARES Act stimulus package.

According to the SS, most of the fraudulent claims stem from false unemployment benefit claims, with the scale of false unemployment claims related to COVID-19 in the U.S. estimated at $87 billion (about 103.7 trillion won).

Previously, during investigations into unemployment insurance and loan fraud, the SS seized $1.2 billion (about 1.4 trillion won) in improperly paid subsidies and recovered $2.3 billion (about 2.7 trillion won). The SS added that since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has conducted over 900 investigations and arrested 100 individuals to date.

Initially, the SS focused its investigations on fraud related to personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks during the early pandemic period. However, following the passage of the stimulus package law and the increase in subsidy-related crimes, the SS emphasized that it now prioritizes investigations to prevent abuse of pandemic-related subsidies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.