Half of the pandemic's unemployment money may have been stolen by criminals and funneled out of the country

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Washington Examiner

Unemployment benefits handed out by the federal government over this past year may have been largely stolen by criminals.

As much as half of the coronavirus-related stimulus aid intended for people in the United States never reached them, according to some new estimates. Instead, it was pocketed by crime syndicates who mostly took the money and fled the country.

Blake Hall, the CEO of ID.me, a verification service that often prevents this type of fraud, told Axios that more than $400 billion of U.S. aid was lost to fraudulent claims.