The RCMP confirmed on Feb. 14 that investigations are ongoing with regards to individuals who defrauded the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), but wouldn’t say on what scale.
“The RCMP confirms that it has received fraud complaints from the Government of Canada in relation to its Covid programs,” spokesperson Cpl. Kim Chamberland told The Epoch Times.
“As there are ongoing investigations, the RCMP cannot provide additional details at this time.”
The query to the RCMP was in relation to information tabled in the House of Commons on Jan. 30 by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).
ESDC said it reported losses related to 12,507 files due to suspected fraud, with payments linked to these files totalling $7,562,568.
“We are unable to confirm whether a single person or group fraudulently received multiple payments,” said ESDC.
The department said all of the over 12,000 files were referred to the RCMP for investigation.
“We are unable to confirm how many individuals have been criminally charged as this falls under the purview of the RCMP,” it says.
The information was tabled in the Commons in an Inquiry of Ministry further to a request from Conservative MP Ron Liepert (Calgary Signal Hill).
Liepert asked how many payments had been made as a result of suspected or confirmed identity theft, the value of the payments, and how many individuals have been criminally charged in relation.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) also responded to the query and said it had built safeguards and applied additional controls to review the benefits applications, noting this prevented a “significant number of payments” to be blocked before being sent.
“Despite vigorous validation and verification measures, there were some instances of identity theft which led to ineligible recipients receiving COVID-19 benefits,” the agency says.
CRA did not provide any numbers and only said analysis and review of suspicious claims is ongoing.
“At this time, it is difficult for the CRA to isolate the number of identity thefts related to CERB applications alone, since the actors of fraudulent activities may have used an individual’s personal information to attempt to obtain payments for more than one type of COVID-19 benefit.”
The agency said that if fraud is detected by legal authorities, it will take the appropriate measures to recover the funds.
Hogan’s report says that $4.6 billion in subsidies were provided to ineligible recipients, whereas another $27.4 billion in payments need further investigation.
Over $6 million were handed to individuals incarcerated during the entire benefit period and $3.3 million to people residing overseas.
Nevertheless, he questioned whether recouping the lost funds would be “worth the effort.”
