On Saturday, The Epoch Times posted an article about a case of fraud involving the Covid-19 relief funds.

The article reports:

Fourteen people were arrested on May 28 for their alleged involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain over $25 million in COVID-19 relief funds and federally guaranteed small business loans, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

All of them are facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, false claims, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions involving property derived from specified unlawful activity, and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.

Law enforcement officers seized about $20,000 in cash, two money-counting machines, paper cash bands, cellphones, laptops, two loaded semi-automatic handguns, and boxes of ammunition during the arrests.

Tyler Hatcher, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation agency, said the defendants were accused of fraudulently obtaining funds through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and other federal funding programs.

The article concludes:

“This transnational criminal network sought to defraud the government of millions of dollars and almost succeeded,” John Pasciucco, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, said.

It remains unclear whether the defendants have been assigned legal representation as of publication.

Was anyone in government paying attention to where taxpayer money was going?