Gangs Used Pandemic Aid to Rake In Money for Crimes; Weak Screening Opened Big Opportunity; 37 Workers at State-Run Developmental Center Targeted in PPP Fraud Probe, and other C-Virus related stories

Gangs used pandemic aid to rake in money for crimes; weak screening opened big opportunity:

The Insane Crip Gang was a fearsome presence on Long Island in New York, blamed for two dozen attempted murders, at least three successful slayings and a host of other crimes.

In recent years, the group started funding its activities in a most unusual way: by stealing pandemic benefits.

The gang worked up a fraud manual to help members fabricate businesses, submit pandemic loan applications to the Small Business Administration, defeat the screening software meant to weed out bogus claims and collect the cash.

Gang members also rushed to apply for unemployment benefits. California’s notoriously frail program was a particular target.

During a single month in 2020, Insane Crip Gang (ICG) members managed to bilk the state out of $200,000 in bogus unemployment payouts.

“They used this money to fund the gang, buy guns and live a lavish lifestyle,” Carolyn Pokorny, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in announcing the charges this spring.

Federal authorities say street gangs, including the Woo gang in Brooklyn, New York, and the Step and Die gang in Shreveport, Louisiana, figured out what Russian and Chinese hackers, Nigerian scammers and regular American grifters knew during the pandemic: that the government was giving out money with little regard to who was asking.

Authorities say taxpayers gave money to fuel the gangs’ activities.

Two of the three big pandemic assistance programs involved small-business lending and enhanced unemployment benefits. Authorities are still struggling to put a dollar figure on the fraud but have indicated it runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars. —>READ MORE HERE

37 Workers at State-Run Developmental Center Targeted in PPP Fraud Probe:

At Ludeman Developmental Center in Park Forest, 37 employees have been fired, resigned or face pending disciplinary action after a state watchdog found that they defrauded a federal pandemic-era small business loan program.

The employees who work at the state-run developmental center in south suburban Cook County include 32 mental health technicians – about 6 percent of frontline workers with that job – three residential services supervisors, one habilitation program coordinator and a licensed practical nurse.

A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services, the agency that runs the 383-bed residential center for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, confirmed these additional details late last week.

Neil Olson, the general counsel for the Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General, previously confirmed to Capitol News Illinois that dozens of employees of state agencies and other entities under the OEIG’s jurisdiction are the subjects of an ongoing investigation into whether they fraudulently obtained Paycheck Protection Program loans. Beyond confirming the investigation, Olson declined to provide any additional details about the probe.

The U.S. Small Business Administration loans were intended to help small businesses remain open and their employees paid as COVID-19 forced mass shutdowns to protect public health. But in a rush to disburse the funds, fraudsters across the country stole billions of dollars meant to prop up mom-and-pop shops, a federal watchdog report found last month. The inspector general for the SBA estimated that the agency paid out more than $200 billion in “potentially fraudulent” aid during the pandemic – about 17 percent of the $1.2 trillion that was dispersed through the PPP and other similar programs.

The employees facing discipline sought loans for small businesses outside of their state work. But those businesses may not have existed, or if they did, may not have earned the income they claimed. The state workers who have faced disciplinary action to date received loans of at least $20,000. To receive that amount meant they claimed income in their second jobs of at least $100,000 on their PPP loan applications.

While state employees are not prohibited from secondary employment, state policies require employees to disclose outside work to the agencies that employ them. Certain state workers, such as managers and people who are responsible for procurement and other financial dealings, must also file statements of economic interest with the secretary of state’s office that would detail any outside business ownership or income. —>READ MORE HERE

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