EDD Investigators Receive National Recognition

The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General (DOL-OIG) recently awarded EDD investigators with Special Recognition awards citing they were “significantly instrumental in combatting COVID-19 unemployment fraud alongside the OIG over the last three years.” The awards reflect the EDD’s work to help recover billions of dollars of stolen federal pandemic funds stemming from fraud attacks during 2020 and to hold criminals accountable.

California took a leadership role in implementing new fraud fighting tools and law enforcement efforts. In 2021, President Biden established three COVID-19 Strike Force teams to target pandemic fraud. The OIG insisted EDD investigators join federal law enforcement agencies on the Strike Force team assigned to California since the EDD is the only state workforce agency to have a body of sworn peace officers and enjoys a long history of partnering with federal investigators.

The EDD’s aggressive response to fraud blocked over $125 billion in fraud attempts and helped recover nearly $2 billion in stolen pandemic funds to date. Since 2020, EDD investigators have contributed to law enforcement efforts by opening over 1,800 investigations—leading to arrests of over 600 suspects, and convicting over 300 perpetrators from California, across the country, and overseas.

California Governor Gavin Newsom also appointed former two-time U.S. Attorney and elected District Attorney, McGregor Scott, to serve as the EDD Fraud Special Counsel. Scott and his team leverage EDD data sources and cutting-edge data analytics to identify and refer cases to state and federal law enforcement agencies for investigation and prosecution of violators.