An unprecedented amount of Californians have had to rely on unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus pandemic throughout 2020 and into the new year.
But many of those unemployment claims have been fraudulent, according to the California Employment Development Department (EDD).
California may have paid out almost $10 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims, according to reporting from CBS and AP News. The figure is double what the EDD had previously estimated the loss to be.
A security firm hired to investigate the widespread fraud also found that some of the money has been going to organized crime in Russia, China, and other countries.
Around 10% of claims submitted to the EDD may have been fraudulent before controls were installed in October, according to the founder, and CEO of ID.me Blake Hall, who talked to the Los Angeles Times on Friday, January 15.
This means that money paid out to those fraudulent claims would work out to $9.8 billion, according to the LA Times.
Hall told the LA Times that typically 10% of unemployment claims nationwide are fraudulent.
California has processed over 16 million unemployment benefits and has paid out $113 billion since March of 2020.
In December, the EDD suspended payments on 1.4 million claims until they were verified.
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