Prisoners in California, including serial killers, have received hundreds of millions of dollars in aid related to the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors said Tuesday, Nov. 24.
Investigators, alerted to illegal jobless claims filed from prisons to access funds released during the pandemic, have discovered tens of thousands made on behalf of prisoners, Sacramento County Prosecutor Anne Marie said. Schubert, at a press conference.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars [ça pourrait bien dépasser le milliard de dollars] having already been paid (…). It will be one of the biggest embezzlements in California history ”, warned Mme Schubert.
The confirmed figure of 140 million dollars (117 million euros) already paid to 20,000 prisoners is only one ” preview “, the real cost potentially being much higher. More than 420,000 dollars (352,000 euros) were thus paid to some 130 people held on death row, including serial killer Wayne Ford.
Malfunctions in the system
Many of the requests used the prisoners’ real names, addresses and Social Security numbers to get bank cards sent to homes in California and other states as part of unemployed aid decided due to the pandemic.
The fraud was made possible by the fact that California, unlike other states, did not cross-check prisoner lists with those of unemployment compensation claims filed for loss of income since the coronavirus lockdown, according to Mme Schubert.
A newly formed task force has done a partial crosscheck in recent weeks, and found that payments had been made to “Rapists, people who have abused children, human traffickers and other violent criminals in our prisons”. “Frankly, the prisoners are laughing at us”, launched Mme Schubert.
Evidence of system malfunctions, some requests were made under false names like “John Doe” (the equivalent of “Mr. X”).
California Governor Gavin Newsom adjudicated the case “Absolutely unacceptable” and promised “As many resources as possible to investigate this issue and resolve it quickly”.