Bloomberg Law
April 15, 2020, 5:00 PM

Labor Department Watchdog to Police Virus Unemployment Fraud

Ben Penn
Ben Penn
Reporter

The Labor Department’s internal watchdog will be on the lookout for people filing fraudulent unemployment insurance claims and states making bogus payouts as part of the relief effort for workers affected by the coronavirus.

Using $26 million in federal oversight funding from the virus stimulus package, the DOL’s Office of Inspector General plans to work with state workforce agencies to prevent and investigate instances of fraud and abuse in their spending of new jobless-benefits funding. The OIG announced its preliminary oversight efforts in a report on Wednesday.

The $2 trillion CARES Act (Public Law 116-136), signed into law March ...