Prosecutors and investigators in Florida take on COVID fraud

With trillions of dollars handed out during the pandemic, the opportunity for fraud was ripe. Now federal prosecutors locally are going after the criminals — and the stolen funds.

By Louis Llovio
| 5:00 a.m. July 29, 2022
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

As federal investigators looked into a violent street gang in Tampa, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office had a hunch.

An operation that traffics drugs and arms itself, like any enterprise, needs operating capital to run day to day, it needs money to make money. And what do criminal organizations do when they need money? They don’t walk into a bank and simply ask for a line of credit.