WCBC

July 15th, 2020 by WCBC Radio

Maryland has uncovered an illegal scheme involving more than 47,500 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims totaling more than $501 million. Governor Larry Hogan made the announcement at an afternoon press conference in Annapolis. “This criminal enterprise seeking to take advantage of a global pandemic to steal hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars from taxpayers is despicable,” Hogan said.

The governor’s office said in a news release that the state’s work “helped shed light on related fraudulent criminal activity in other states” across the country.

Hogan said 96.4 % of unemployment claims have been processed and that the proportion of cases still still pending — 3.6 % — is “in line with pre-pandemic levels.”

The governor said the state quickly notified federal authorities when it learned about the scheme, which he called “massive identity theft.”