The Department of Justice on Thursday named a director of COVID-19 fraud enforcement.
The move is in line with a pledge President Biden made in his State of the Union address on March 1. Associate Deputy Attorney General Kevin Chambers said he is honored to take on the new responsibility.
Chambers is tasked with leading the department’s criminal and civil enforcement efforts to combat COVID-19-related fraud, along with the leading results of criminal and civil enforcement actions, which include alleged fraud related to more than $8 billion in pandemic relief. He said he plans to focus on large-scale criminal enterprises and foreign actors who sought to profit at the expense of the American people. Efforts will include establishing “strike teams” to prepare for the next phase in the Justice Department’s efforts to fight pandemic fraud.
In May 2021, the attorney general established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to work with the Department of Justice and other government agencies to target enforcement of pandemic-related fraud. Since then, the DOJ’s efforts have resulted in criminal charges against more than 1,000 defendants with alleged losses exceeding $1.1 billion; the seizure of more than $1 billion in Economic Injury Disaster Loan proceeds; and more than 240 civil investigations into more than 1,800 individuals and entities for alleged misconduct in connection with pandemic relief loans totaling more than $6 billion, according to the DOJ.
“The Justice Department remains committed to using every available federal tool — including criminal, civil, and administrative actions — to combat and prevent COVID-19-related fraud,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stated Thursday.
The Justice Department is “redoubling our efforts to identify pandemic fraud, to charge and prosecute those individuals responsible for it and whenever possible, to recover funds stolen from the American people,” Chambers said Thursday at the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force roundtable. “And we’re going to do it using tools that we’ve long used to fight crime, but we’re going to use some new tools that we’ve developed since the beginning of this pandemic when our law enforcement efforts began.”
