OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Washington State Attorney General’s office is using its powers to help the state recover stolen COVID relief funds.
Washington is among 11 states that lost billions to people or groups that scammed unemployment systems early in the pandemic.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson says he’s using his asset forfeiture authority to get some of it back.
He’s subpoenaed information from 35 banks for accounts that received unemployment payments from multiple states, for multiple people or for someone other than the account holder.
He says they’ve recovered $435,000 so far and are working to collect more.