Fraud..

 

A leader of a Los Angeles-based fraud ring that stole $18 million in COVID-19 aid money was extradited from Europe to the United States, where she could face more than a decade in prison.

Authorities said the money was used for down payments on luxury homes in the Tarzana area of Los Angeles, suburban Glendale and the Palm Desert and to buy luxuries ranging from gold coins and jewelry to designer handbags.

In testimony on Feb. 8 to a congressional committee, Larry D. Turner, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Labor, estimated that at least $191 billion of the $872.5 billion in federal unemployment insurance benefits paid out during the pandemic "could have been improper payments, with a significant portion attributable to fraud.