Thank you, Mr. Attorney General, Madam Deputy Attorney General, I’m honored to take on this new role and I’m excited to continue to work with the women and men in the Department of Justice and also with all of you at the law enforcement agencies and Office of Inspector General that have been such good partners to us.
I’ve had the privilege over the past year to work with all of you and your teams on the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force and I’ve seen firsthand the dedication and the hard work that they all bring to the effort and I’ve also seen the results. As we’ve heard, you brought criminal and civil cases against thousands of individuals and entities, alleging billions of dollars in fraud. And that’s impressive and it’s made all the more impressive by the fact that all of that was accomplished in the course of an unprecedented global crisis.
Now, the work is by no means done, as the Deputy Attorney General said. But the work to this point has been extraordinary and I’m looking forward to building on that work, and redoubling our efforts to identify pandemic fraud, to charge and prosecute those individuals responsible for it and whenever possible, to recover funds stolen from the American people. And we’re going to do it using tools that we’ve long used to fight crime, but we’re going to use some new tools that we’ve developed since the beginning of this pandemic when our law enforcement efforts began.
Now, we’re going to target large scale criminal organizations who are committing some of the largest and far-ranging fraud. Many of them using identity theft to victimize Americans who so needed this relief. We’re also going to prioritize overseas actors who saw our government’s relief packages as an opportunity for personal gain. There’s a lot of work for us to do, but there’s no doubt in my mind that this group is up to the task. Sir [Garland], Ma’am [Monaco], thank you for your leadership and for this opportunity and I look forward to the work ahead. Thank you.