Justice Department charges nearly 500 persons for pandemic-related fraud.

The DOJ said in a statement on Friday that it has charged 474 defendants with criminal offenses over fraud schemes across 56 federal districts.

At least 120 defendants have been charged with fraud related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a provision of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act aimed at helping small businesses keep workers on their payrolls. The department also said that more than 140 defendants have been charged with unemployment insurance fraud.

The DOJ also said that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado and the Secret Service have seized more than $580 million in proceeds from fraudulent applications for the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) program. Those were designed for small businesses and agricultural and nonprofit entities.

On top of that, the DOJ has brought civil and criminal enforcement actions against scams targeting American consumers, including those that sold products using false or unapproved claims about their abilities to fight the coronavirus pandemic. ...