Over the 14 months since COVID-19 laid waste to the economy, 150,000 or more fraudulent unemployment claims have been identified by the state Department of Labor, many coming in surges of phony applications from criminal organizations trying to steal from the billions of dollars appropriated for pandemic relief.
State officials said Monday they are fighting back in part by re-establishing a state prosecution unit that will work with labor department investigators to run down fraudulent claims and, where possible, make arrests and seek restitution. The state had such an unemployment fraud prosecution unit until 2018, when it fell to budget cuts.