Prosecutors across California blasted the Employment Development Department again Thursday, saying the department still hasn’t stopped a massive pandemic assistance fraud scheme that it has known about for months.

周四，加州检察官再次炮轰就业发展部，称该部仍未能阻止一场数月前就已知晓的大规模流行病援助欺诈骗局。

In a new letter, a coalition of nine district attorneys urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to use emergency powers if necessary to stop payments that they think the state is still sending to prison inmates.

在一封新的信中，一个由九名地区检察官组成的联盟敦促州长加文·纽森(Gavin Newsom)在必要时动用紧急权力，停止支付他们认为该州仍在向监狱囚犯支付的款项。

The DA’s have said the scheme, which they announced last week, involves tens of thousands of inmates and outside accomplices who bilked the state out of as much as $1 billion in federal funds meant for Californians who lost jobs and income due to COVID-19.

地方检察官表示，他们上周宣布的这个计划涉及数万名囚犯和外部同谋，他们骗取了联邦政府高达10亿美元的资金，这些资金原本是为那些因COVID-19而失去工作和收入的加州人准备的。

The state has paid out about $400 million on 21,000 fraudulent claims filed on behalf of state inmates, but has frozen payment on only about 3,700 debit cards used to make the payments, according figures from Labor and Workforce Development Agency spokeswoman Crystal Page.

根据劳动和劳动力发展机构发言人Crystal Page的数据，该州已经支付了大约4亿美元用于支付2.1万份欺诈性索赔，但仅冻结了用于支付这些索赔的3700张借记卡的支付。

Newsom said in a letter to the DA’s this week that EDD noticed an increase in pandemic unemployment insurance claims in July and August and took action in September.

Newsom在本周给地方检察官的一封信中说，EDD注意到在7月和8月失业保险索赔大范围增加，并在9月采取了行动。

Yet the DA’s said Thursday “the fraud has continued” and could worsen. The letter includes a reference to “unverified information” DA’s have received suggesting the department has distributed at least $1 billion to out-of-state claimants.

然而地方检察官周四表示，“欺诈行为仍在继续”，并可能恶化。信中还提到地方检察官收到的“未经证实的信息”，表明该部门已经向外州索赔人发放了至少10亿美元。

“We are deeply concerned that the fraud will continue to grow exponentially,” they wrote.

“我们非常担心欺诈行为将继续呈指数级增长，”他们写道。

The DA’s also took issue with the administration’s contention that it has been hobbled by legal restrictions.

地方检察官还对政府的说法提出了异议，认为政府受到了法律限制。

Newsom’s administration has said California law prevented the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from sharing inmates’ Social Security numbers with EDD — a key step that the DAs believe could have halted the problem much sooner.

纽森政府表示，加州法律禁止惩教和康复部与EDD共享囚犯的社会安全号码——这是一个关键步骤，惩教和康复部相信可以更快地解决这个问题。

In their letter Thursday, the prosecutors said the state’s Unemployment Insurance Code allows the sharing of that information. The DA’s couldn’t get corrections department data on the EDD claims until Nov. 12, when the federal Department of Labor provided it, according to the letter.

检察官在星期四的信中说，该州的失业保险法允许分享这一信息。信中说，地方检察官直到11月12日联邦劳工部(department of Labor)提供了有关EDD指控的数据后，才得到管教部门的数据。

The EDD had the data earlier but wouldn’t share it with the prosecutors, the prosecutors said. Even if there is a legal impediment, Newsom should use emergency powers to get around it, the DA’s said.

检察官说，EDD早前就掌握了这些数据，但不愿与检察官分享。地方检察官说，即使存在法律上的障碍，纽森应该使用紧急权力来绕过它。

“There is perhaps no greater need to protect the resources of the state than to immediately prohibit payment (of) unemployment benefit claims made in the names of state, federal and local inmates,” their letter said.

他们在信中说:“要保护该州的资源，最重要的可能就是立即禁止以州、联邦和当地囚犯的名义申领失业救济金。”

Page said the Labor agency was working with Bank of America — whose debit cards are used to pay claims — to “take appropriate next steps on the other fraudulent claims.”

佩奇说，劳工机构正在与美国银行(其借记卡被用于支付索赔)合作，以“采取适当的下一步措施应对其他欺诈性索赔”。

Prosecutors say the scheme was relatively straightforward: Using contraband cell phones, inmates supplied girlfriends, wives and other outsiders with prisoners’ Social Security numbers and other personal information. The outsiders then obtained benefits on the prisoners’ behalf, in the form of checks or prepaid BofA cards mailed out by EDD, Page said. The accomplices cashed out the payments, took a cut for themselves, and arranged for the rest to be sent to the prisoners.

检察官表示，这个计划相对简单:囚犯使用违禁品手机，向女友、妻子和其他外人提供囚犯的社会安全号码和其他个人信息。佩奇说，随后，外部人员以EDD邮寄支票或美国银行预付卡的形式，为囚犯们谋取利益。同伙们把钱兑换成现金，自己取了一部分，然后安排把剩下的钱送给囚犯们。

“There are thousands of contraband cell phones in the prisons,” Fresno County DA Lisa Smittcamp said in an interview.

“监狱里有成千上万的违禁品手机，”弗雷斯诺县的DA Lisa Smittcamp在一次采访中说。

Responding to a crisis that has proved increasingly embarrassing, Newsom told the DA’s coalition earlier this week that state officials acted quickly. “In early September, EDD implemented security procedures to deter and eliminate fraudulent claims,” he said in a letter to the prosecutors.

为了应对日益尴尬的危机，纽瑟姆在本周早些时候告诉民主联盟，州政府官员行动迅速。他在致检控官的信中说:“教育署于九月初实施保安程序，以遏止和消除欺诈索偿。”

That apparently referred to a two-week “reset” in which the state stopped taking new unemployment claims, canceled payments in which multiple claims were filed from the same address, and began installing a verification system called ID.me.

这显然指的是为期两周的“重置”，在此期间，该州停止接受新的失业申请，取消从同一地址提交多个失业申请的支付，并开始安装一个名为ID.me的验证系统。

At a press conference Thursday, Newsom continued to defend the administration’s response. He said the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, where most of the fraud occurred, was established with “a presumption of eligibility” that made it easier to commit fraud.

在星期四的新闻发布会上，纽瑟姆继续为政府的反应辩护。他说，大多数欺诈行为发生在大范围的失业援助计划中，该计划建立在"资格推定"的基础上，这使得欺诈行为更容易发生。

He said the state had to undergo “a constant balancing act” between determining eligibility and getting money paid quickly to help as many people as possible.

他说，该州必须在确定资格和尽快获得资金以帮助尽可能多的人之间进行“持续的平衡”。

The prosecutors have been particularly critical of California’s failure to routinely cross-match inmates’ identities with unemployment claims — a practice that many other states follow. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which runs the prisons, believed it couldn’t share Social Security numbers and other identifying data with agencies outside the sphere of law enforcement. After the federal government subpoenaed the inmates’ data, the DA’s were able to cross-match the prisoners with the unemployment claimants, revealing the extent of the fraud.

检察官特别批评了加州没有按照惯例将囚犯的身份与失业申请进行匹配——许多其他州都遵循这一做法。负责管理这些监狱的加州惩教与康复部(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)认为，它无法与执法领域以外的机构分享社会安全号码和其他身份识别数据。在联邦政府传唤了囚犯的数据后，地方检察官能够将囚犯与失业索赔者进行交叉比对，从而揭示了欺诈的程度。

The scheme unfolded even as California received multiple warnings from the U.S. Department of Labor about the likelihood of fraud as Congress approved hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to counter the economic effect of COVID-19. An unrelated cybercrime scheme, unveiled in May, siphoned more than $500 million in pandemic assistance from Washington state’s unemployment system.

正当美国国会批准数千亿美元的援助资金以对抗COVID-19的经济影响时，加州收到了美国劳工部的多次警告，称存在欺诈的可能性。今年5月公布的一项与此无关的网络犯罪计划，从华盛顿州的失业系统中抽走了超过5亿美元的流行病救助资金。

So far only 21 people have been charged, all in a case uncovered by San Mateo County prosecutors. But more charges are imminent. In an interview, Monterey County DA Jeannine Pacioni said her office is preparing to charge 30 county jail inmates with fraud totaling at least $700,000.

到目前为止，只有21人被指控，所有这些都是由圣马特奥县检察官发现的。但更多的指控迫在眉睫。在一次采访中，蒙特雷县的达·珍妮·帕瑟尼表示，她的办公室正准备以总计至少70万美元的诈骗罪起诉30名县监狱囚犯。

Pacioni said additional inmates are likely to be charged, raising the dollar total higher; it appears 600 inmates at two state prisons in Monterey County filed fraudulent claims totaling about $2.5 million.

Pacioni说，额外的囚犯可能会被起诉，使总费用更高;据称，蒙特雷县两所州立监狱的600名囚犯提出了总计约250万美元的欺诈性索赔。

A member of the DA’s coalition, she faulted Newsom’s administration for doing too little to respond to the crisis and for keeping it quiet.

作为民主联盟的一员，她指责纽森政府在应对危机方面做得太少，而且对危机保持沉默。

“He isn’t taking responsibility for something he knew about and I think the public has a right to know that the Governor’s Office was aware of this fraud going on and did nothing to stop it at the time when they found out,” she said.

她说:“他没有对他所知道的事情负责。我认为公众有权知道，州长办公室已经意识到这一欺诈行为，而且在发现时没有采取任何措施阻止它。”

Pacioni said statewide coordination would be critical because inmates often are housed in prisons far from home — making it hard to connect them to phony unemployment claims filed by their friends and family.

Pacioni说，全州范围内的协调至关重要，因为囚犯经常被关在离家很远的监狱里——很难把他们和他们的朋友和家人伪造的失业申请联系起来。

Another member of the coalition, Riverside County DA Michael Hestrin, also was highly critical of EDD. “It looks to me like there were little or no safeguards,” he said in an interview. “You signed up, you got a debit card.”

联盟的另一名成员，河滨县检察官迈克尔·赫斯特林也对EDD持强烈批评态度。“在我看来，这里几乎没有安全措施，”他在接受采访时说。“你注册了，你有一张借记卡。”

After San Mateo officials filed charges in mid-August, “we all started looking” for similar patterns, Hestrin said. “That’s when the dam broke. We got on the phones and the chat lines and compared notes.”

在圣马特奥官员于8月中旬提出指控后，“我们都开始寻找”类似的模式，Hestrin说。“就在那时，大坝决堤了。我们通过电话和聊天，交换了意见。”

But as the DAs began investigating, they say they got little or no cooperation from the state.

但当DAs开始调查时，他们说他们很少或根本没有得到政府的合作。

“EDD was slow to react, though they’re getting it now. At first management of EDD pledged their support, but they didn’t get back to us. We didn’t get information we needed,” Hestrin said. “We needed records from EDD to see who was getting benefits. They were slow to get back to us.”

EDD反应缓慢，尽管他们现在已经明白了。起初，EDD的管理层承诺他们的支持，但他们没有回复我们。我们没有得到我们需要的信息，”Hestrin说。“我们需要EDD的记录，看看谁得到了好处。他们回来得很慢。”

原链接：

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article247561575.html