Stimulus package seen as windfall for fraudsters

The U.S. government’s $787 billion stimulus package offers ripe opportunities for fraud, according to criminal experts. There could be “tons of crime coming out of the stimulus package,” said Susan Will, assistant professor of sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Criminals descended like “vultures” to take advantage of big government spending after disasters such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, said Ms. Wills who spoke on Wednesday at a John Jay conference titled “How Do They Get Away With It? Tracking Financial Crime in the New Era.” “There are large sums of money going out quickly. There’s not enough FBI agents who know how to investigate” such matters, she said. Plus, government money often comes with “use or lose” constraints, meaning the money often winds up being spend in haste, Ms. Will said. The stimulus package is “obviously” a worry, said Deirdre McEvoy, deputy chief of the criminal division for white-collar crime in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, who stressed she was not speaking on behalf of the government but airing her own views. After 9/11, criminal activity like false applications for funds or programs came to light, Ms. McEvoy noted.