BofA Says $2 Billion Fraudulently Claimed From California Funds

Criminals may have fraudulently claimed about $2 billion from California’s unemployment and pandemic stimulus funds, according to Bank of America Corp.

The lender, which manages California’s debit-card program for unemployment payments, said its estimate was based on the roughly 345,000 accounts it was asked to freeze by the state’s Employment Development Department in September. The figure was included in the bank’s response Monday to a Nov. 24 letter from state lawmakers to Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan seeking to address problems for hundreds of thousands of constituents whose weren’t able to access their funds.

Bank of America acknowledged that fraud-detection ...