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(WASHINGTON) — The watchdog report released Tuesday that revealed how some $200 billion in COVID-19 aid was potentially misspent threw into sharper relief how one pandemic-era program emerged above all others as a magnet for fraudsters: the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, or EIDL.

Launched in March 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, EIDL was designed to distribute fast loans to help small businesses retain employees and stay on top of bills as the economy sputtered. By all accounts, it worked, rescuing jobs and businesses across the country.

But the program was also plagued by fraud. Of the $400 billion in taxpayer money doled out as part of EIDL, more than a third — some $136 billion — might have gone to fraudsters, according to the report published this week by Hannibal “Mike” Ware, the Small Business Administration’s inspector general.

The sizeable figure seems to justify Ware’s projection in a 2021 interview with ABC News that, “in terms of the monetary value, the amount of fraud in these COVID relief programs is going to be larger than any government program that came before it.”

“It is a shockingly high level of potential fraud and one that should have been reduced greatly,” said Sean Moulton, a senior policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.

All told, the federal government flooded the economy with some $5 trillion to support companies and individuals as the COVID-19 pandemic bore down on the country, including more than $1.2 billion specifically earmarked for small businesses.

To help expedite the relief funding, the Small Business Administration “lowered the guardrails,” the agency’s watchdog later said, opting to drop burdensome and time-consuming internal controls and accepting some amount of fraud — then pledging to recover squandered funds on the back end.

“The allure of ‘easy money’ in this pay-and-chase environment attracted an overwhelming number of fraudsters to the programs,” according to the inspector general’s new report.

Fraudsters used a myriad of tactics to manipulate the program, the report said.

Many fraudsters took advantage of EIDL advances, which allowed applicants to apply for $1,000 per employee — up to $10,000 total — in grants that would not need to be repaid. The advances were self-certified, meaning the number of employees “was not vetted by SBA,” the watchdog wrote — a loophole that many fraudsters exploited.

Other fraudsters used scams to steal victims’ identities, and then used their personal information to file fraudulent EIDL claims.

The “easy money” in EIDL was so lucrative that it prompted the creation of a cottage industry: The inspector general’s report highlighted a perpetrator who “took his talents to the web, schooling other would-be fraudsters on how to rip off programs meant for struggling entrepreneurs during a crisis.”

Another duo pleaded guilty to “perpetrating a vast nationwide scheme to help others submit fraudulent COVID-19 EIDL and PPP loan applications” for a fee, the report said.

The SBA, in a response included in the report, pushed back on some of the inspector general’s findings, saying that it welcomed the review but believes the report “contains serious flaws that significantly overestimate fraud.”

The inspector general’s review allowed for “a high percentage of false positives,” or potential fraud cases that, upon further inspection, were not fraud, Bailey DeVries, Acting Associate Administrator of the SBA, said in the response.

Since launching its investigation, Ware’s office has managed to claw back around $30 billion in funds, according to the report, and their efforts have led to “1,011 indictments, 803 arrests, and 529 convictions related to COVID-19 EIDL and PPP fraud as of May 2023,” the report said.

Ware will appear before Congress in July to discuss his findings under oath.

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(BOSTON) — Shockwaves from the gruesome home-invasion slayings in the Boston area of three elderly members of a devout Catholic family have reached Pope Francis at the Vatican, a priest told grieving parishioners at a service held for the victims.

During a Tuesday night Mass of peace at the Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newton, Massachusetts, Rev. Dan Riley said Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, called him from Rome to inform him that he is praying for the victims’ family with the pope.

“He was about to go into a meeting with the pope and he promised that he would inform the pope of what happened and that he and the pope would pray out loud together, specifically for the family,” Riley said.

Bruno and Gilda “Jill” D’Amore and Jill’s 97-year-old mother, Lucia Arpino, were found stabbed and beaten to death Sunday morning by a church parishioner who went to their home to check on them after the D’Amores failed to show up at a service commemorating their 50th wedding anniversary, officials said.

Terrance Donilon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that O’Malley and Pope Francis prayed together for the victims of what O’Malley described in a statement as “brutal and senseless murders.”

“They loved Christ and the Church. On the day of their murders, Gilda and Bruno were to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary at Our Lady Help of Christians. They lived their Catholic faith proudly and in service to the Church,” O’Malley said in a statement, adding that he plans to offer Mass for the victims at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Mass Tuesday night in Newton drew hundreds of community residents and was held just after the suspect in the triple homicide, 41-year-old Christopher Ferguson, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in Newton District Court to one count of murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury.

The single murder count is based on an autopsy by the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which ruled 73-year-old Jill D’Amore’s death to be a homicide, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain said in court. The autopsies for Jill D’Amore’s husband, 74-year-old Bruno D’Amore, and her mother, 97-year-old Lucia Arpino, were expected to be completed Tuesday and prosecutors said they anticipate filing two more murder counts against Ferguson as early as Wednesday.

A motive in the case remains under investigation though police have said the home invasion and killings appeared to be a possible “random” act of violence.

Ferguson attended the hearing via Zoom. His attorney, Dmitry Lev, did not object to the prosecution’s request to hold Ferguson without bail.

Middlesex County District Attorney Ryan disclosed at a news conference this week that the autopsy performed on Jill D’Amore determined she suffered more than 30 stab and blunt force trauma injuries, primarily to the upper part of her body and head. The prosecutor also said investigators found obvious signs of an intense struggle in one of the bedrooms of the D’Amore home, including broken furniture and a crystal paperweight covered in blood.

A friend who went to the D’Amore’s home just after 10 a.m. on Sunday discovered the bodies of the three victims in the same bedroom, Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allaine said at Ferguson’s arraignment.

Police found signs of a forced entry in the basement of the D’Amore’s home and bare footprints matching those of Ferguson on the tile floor of the residents, Allain said.

Ryan said video surveillance footage from a home near the D’Amore residence captured Ferguson in the neighborhood at 5:20 a.m. on Sunday. He was shirtless, barefoot and walking with a staggering gait.

Ryan said several Newton police officers recognized Ferguson from prior contact with him. She said Ferguson is believed to live at a residence four-tenths of a mile from the D’Amore home.

A neighbor of the suspect told ABC Boston affiliate station WCVB that Ferguson “struggles with mental health issues.”

Ferguson’s next court date is scheduled for July 25.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a nationwide health care fraud crackdown that resulted in charges against 78 defendants in separate schemes that totaled more than $2.5 billion in alleged fraudulent billings, marking what Attorney General Merrick Garland called “one of the largest health care fraud schemes ever prosecuted by the Justice Department.”

The charges across 17 separate federal districts include cases against at least 24 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals accused of various schemes defrauding programs in which the victims largely included those in vulnerable populations — including the elderly, disabled, pregnant women and those with HIV.

As part of the coordinated law enforcement actions between the DOJ, FBI, DEA, HHS Inspector General and other agency partners, the operations also resulted in seizures of more than $10.3 million in assets that included bank accounts, cars, a boat and several homes.

“These enforcement actions, including against one of the largest health care fraud schemes ever prosecuted by the Justice Department, represent our intensified efforts to combat fraud and prosecute the individuals who profit from it,” Garland said in a statement announcing the charges. “The Justice Department will find and bring to justice criminals who seek to defraud Americans and steal from taxpayer-funded programs.”

The cases unsealed over a two-week period this month included “one of the largest health care fraud schemes ever prosecuted” by the department, in which two top executives and a former executive of an internet platform were charged for submitting roughly $1.9 billion in fraudulent claims to Medicare, officials said Wednesday.

The three individuals are alleged to have used their platform DMERx as a means to connect pharmacies and medical equipment suppliers to telemedicine companies who would in turn accept kickbacks and bribes on orders for orthotic braces and prescription pain creams that were not eligible for reimbursement from Medicare. They allegedly programmed the platform to generate templates of false doctors’ orders for the products that were hawked to elderly and disabled people as part of a massive telemarketing operation, resulting in more than $1.96 billion in false claims to Medicare.

In another case announced Wednesday, an owner and corporate officer from a pharmaceutical company were charged for a fraud scheme alleging the company repackaged more than $150 million worth of HIV medication on the street and from patients and then unlawfully resold that medication to pharmacies in order to dispense to patients in need. In some cases, bottles of that medication included wrong or broken pills and even pebbles.

Earlier this month, a person was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a related scheme where he repackaged drugs and tried to sell them to wholesale companies, using the proceeds to buy things like a $280,000 Lamborghini, a $220,000 Mercedes and three boats.

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(NEW YORK) — The hundreds of wildfires burning in Canada are continuing to cause poor air quality conditions for millions of residents in the U.S.

On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for at least 20 states from Minnesota and as far south as Georgia. The unhealthy air quality alerts even extended to the Northeast including all of New York state and New Jersey.

The smoke will linger over Minnesota to Washington, D.C., and down to Carolinas on Wednesday afternoon.

By Thursday morning, cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Pittsburgh will be affected by smoke, forecasts show.

The smoke will linger from Detroit to Atlanta and east to Washington, D.C., and near Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon.

The poor air quality is not expected to affect New York City, but will stay in western New York, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, forecasts show.

Smoke from the nearly 500 wildfires burning in Canada has been making its way to the U.S. for more than a month, after an unprecedented start to the season in which a record 19.5 million acres has already burned. Canada has also broken its record for annual wildfire smoke emissions.

There is no end in sight for the wildfires due to dry conditions and extreme heat in the region.

Some regions in the Midwest measured at the lowest air quality in the world on Tuesday morning, including regions surrounding Minnesota, according to IQAir, which monitors air quality worldwide.

Chicago air quality hit the “very unhealthy” category on Tuesday afternoon as the Air Quality Index soared to 250. Any number over 100 is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, and 250, or “Code Purple,” is considered very unhealthy for all groups.

Once the AQI reaches 151 and above, breathing the polluted air could cause a host of symptoms — even in healthy people with no preexisting conditions — including weakening the immune system and causing damage to the body, including the lungs and heart.

Exposure to concentrated amounts of PM2.5 can cause short-term effects such as irritation of the eyes, nose and throat; coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath, and long-term effects such as worsening of conditions including asthma and heart disease, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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(TOPEKA, Kan.) — While the mysterious white powder inside scores of envelopes sent to Republican lawmakers and officials in at least three states has been deemed harmless, investigators say the mailings could still get someone killed.

“This isn’t just a statement that somebody is trying to make. This is costing us the ability to save lives in Kansas,” said Tony Mattivi, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which led what Mattivi called the “unprecedented investigation” when more than 100 envelopes containing the powder and a threatening note were discovered this month in Kansas.

After more letters were sent to officials in Tennessee and Montana — and even to Donald Trump, according to federal officials — the FBI took over the case.

In an interview with ABC News, Mattivi described how for four days the Kansas Bureau of Investigation was forced to focus nearly all of its resources on responding to the letters.

“We just don’t know at the early stages how much of a threat it is … We have no choice,” Mattivi said.

At one point, “every single bomb squad [and] every single hazmat unit in the state of Kansas, whether federal, state or local” was dealing with this case, Mattivi said. “This was a massive resource drain.”

According to Mattivi, his agency was stretched so thin responding to the letters that it was unable to intercept a substantial shipment of fentanyl that agents knew was coming.

When the agency did try to grab the shipment, it was too late — and having another law enforcement agency take action earlier wasn’t an option because that would have required “significant coordination” and time, which the agency didn’t have, Mattivi said.

“We have no idea how many overdoses and deaths are going to take place when we had a realistic likelihood of being able to intercept that shipment in the first place,” Mattivi said of the missed fentanyl bust.

“This threat, it was not harmless,” Mattivi said of the mailings.

The letters obtained so far appear to be largely the same: They come in standard white envelopes with false return addresses, and contain a white powder along with a cryptic letter telling recipients, “It is important not to choke on your ambition,” according to officials and a copy of one letter posted online.

One Kansas state lawmaker who received a letter said it had a fake return address for a local church — a ploy he believes was designed to make it appear it was from a constituent. In at least some cases, names on the return addresses were believed to be those of transgender people who had died, recipients told ABC News.

“Someone put a lot of thought and a lot of effort into the research that they did,” Kansas state Rep. Stephen Owens said.

Asked if whoever’s sending the letters is specifically driven by politics, considering that so many recipients are Republican, Mattivi said: “We’re looking at a wide range of motives. Nothing’s off the table at this point.”

The FBI, in a statement, said, “Law enforcement and public safety officials are working to determine how many letters were sent, the individual or individuals responsible for the letters, and the motive behind the letters.”

Mattivi expressed confidence that those responsible will be caught.

“I’m optimistic that we’re going to make an apprehension here,” he said.

ABC News’ Jay O’Brien contributed to this report.

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(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — A Delta plane landed safely at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Wednesday morning without its front landing gear, according to the airline.

Passenger Chris Skotarczak told ABC News there was no chaos on board during the landing, and he praised the crew for their work.

No injuries were reported among the two pilots, three flight attendants or 96 customers on board the Boeing 717, Delta said. The flight had left from Atlanta earlier in the morning.

Delta said its pilots received a “nose gear unsafe” indication and flew by the Charlotte airport’s air traffic control tower to allow air traffic control an opportunity to “visually inspect the plane.” That showed the nose landing gear doors were open, but the nose gear itself remained in the up position, Delta said.

Pilots declared an emergency on board and passengers said they were briefed by flight attendants. Passengers said it was a smooth landing, even though they were told to brace for a rough touchdown.

Passengers said clapping erupted once the plane touched down and they then deplaned using the slide.

Delta said in a statement: “While this is a rare occurrence, Delta flight crews train extensively to safely manage through many scenarios and flight 1092 landed safely without reported injuries. Our next focus is to take care of our customers on this flight, including retrieving their bags and seeing them to their final destinations safely. We apologize to our customers for what they experienced.”

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the flight landed with its nose gear up and said it will investigate.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Amanda Maile and Lena Camilletti contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is now suing the writer who sued him for defamation.

Trump is accusing E. Jean Carroll of defaming him when, after a jury held him liable for sexually assaulting her but not raping her as she initially claimed, Carroll appeared on television and insisted he did rape her.

“In response to that specific inquiry, Counterclaim Defendant disregarded the jury’s finding that Counterclaimant did not rape her, and replied: ‘Oh yes he did, oh yes he did,'” the lawsuit said.

Trump’s counterclaim said Carroll’s statements following her successful battery and defamation lawsuit caused “significant harm to his reputation,” making him deserving of compensatory and punitive damages.

The former president’s lawsuit also took aim at statements Carroll said she made privately to defense attorney Joe Tacopina at the conclusion of the trial.

“Specifically, Counterclaim Defendant stated in the Interview that she emphatically told Mr. Tacopina at the conclusion of the trial that ‘he did it and you know it,’ again reaffirming her claim that Counterclaimant raped her. Counterclaim Defendant made these statements knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity,” Trump’s lawsuit said.

A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in May. Trump’s attorney recently put $5.5 million into an account controlled by the court while the defense pursues an appeal of the jury’s verdict and damage award.

In a statement, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, called Trump’s counterclaim an attempt to delay accountability.

“Donald Trump again argues, contrary to both logic and fact, that he was exonerated by a jury that found that he sexually abused E Jean Carroll by forcibly inserting his fingers into her vagina. Four out of the five statements in Trump’s so-called counterclaim were made outside of New York’s one-year statute of limitations. The other statement similarly will not withstand a motion to dismiss,” Kaplan said.

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(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans are on alert for unhealthy air quality as smoke from wildfires in neighboring Canada drifts to the United States.

Wildfires have burned more than 17.7 million acres across Canada so far this year, with no end in sight. There are nearly 500 active wildfires throughout the country and almost 260 have been deemed out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. The smoke has been making its way to the U.S. for over a month.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jun 28, 7:45 AM EDT
Chicago air quality hits ‘very unhealthy’ category

As Canadian wildfire smoke infiltrates the midwestern United States, the air in Chicago has deteriorated to the Air Quality Index’s> “very unhealthy” category.

The AQI in hazy Chicago reached 250 on Tuesday afternoon. Any number over 100 is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.

“We recommend children, teens, seniors, people with heart or lung disease, and individuals who are pregnant avoid strenuous activities and limit their time outdoors,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson warned in a statement. “For additional precautions, all Chicagoans may also consider wearing masks, limiting their outdoor exposure, moving activities indoors, running air purifiers, and closing windows.”

The smoke is forecast to clear on Friday when showers and thunderstorms hit the region.

Earlier this month, the AQI in the northeastern U.S. reached near maximum with levels in the high 400s.

Jun 28, 7:03 AM EDT
20 US states under air quality alerts

As of Wednesday morning, 20 U.S. states are under air quality alerts from Minnesota down to Georgia and as far north as western New York.

Wildfire smoke from neighbouring Canada is currently blanketing large swaths of the United States, from Iowa to western Pennsylvania to North Carolina and most everywhere in between. Only Chicago is getting a small reprieve on Wednesday morning due to a lake breeze, which isn’t expected to last for long.

Later on Wednesday, the smoke is expected to cover areas from Minnesota to Washington, D.C. and down to the Carolinas.

By early Thursday morning, the smoke will be seen in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. But by the afternoon, it will linger from Detroit to Atlanta and east to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

New York City could be impacted as well, but most of the smoke from the Canadian wildfires is expected to stay in western New York state, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

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(SAN ANTONIO) — One year after 53 people, including six kids, were killed in an abandoned sweltering tractor-trailer near San Antonio during an alleged smuggling attempt, the Justice Department announced it has indicted and arrested four men for the incident.

Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, Felipe Orduna-Torres, Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal and Armando Gonzales-Ortega were all arrested and charged on several counts including conspiracy and alien smuggling resulting in death, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

The four men allegedly participated with three other suspects, Homero Zamorano and Christian Martinez who were previously indicted and arrested, and a seventh unidentified suspect in a human smuggling organization that attempted to bring 66 people into the United States on June 27, 2022, the indictment said.

The migrants and their families, a majority from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, paid between $12,000 and $15,000 each to be brought into the country, the indictment said.

The indictment detailed how the men allegedly worked together to use trucking routes, local guides, stash houses, trucks and trailers to transport the group. To make sure they properly kept track of the group, each migrant was given the code word “clave” to recite at different points in their journey, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said the men knew the tractor-trailer they were using on that day did not have a working air conditioning unit. As the temperature rose, the people in the back became desperate, screaming and banging on the walls for help, according to the indictment.

It was the deadliest incident of human smuggling in U.S. history, according to investigators.

Eleven people found inside the tractor were hospitalized but survived, investigators said.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite spoke at length during a news conference about the efforts with Joint Task Force Alpha, whose mission is to investigate human rights violations and push for prosecution. Since June of 2021, they’ve had 80 convictions.

“Our message is simple,” Polite said. “When you put people’s lives at risk, when you ignore the screams of humanity for profit, we will aggressively go after you.”

The trial for Zamorano and Martinez is set for Sept. 11. All six charged so far face life in prison if convicted. Attorney information for the suspects wasn’t immediately available.

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(NEW YORK) — Marine veteran Daniel Penny is expected to appear in court Wednesday in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway train.

He was indicted by a grand jury on June 14, but his exact charges remain sealed until Penny appears in court, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Penny was initially arrested on a second-degree manslaughter charge.

Video showed Penny, 24, putting Neely in a chokehold on May 1. Several witnesses observed Neely making threats, assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass told the judge during Penny’s initial appearance in court on May 12.

Some witnesses told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train, authorities said.

Police sources told ABC News that Penny was not specifically being threatened by Neely when he intervened and that Neely had not become violent and had not been threatening anyone in particular.

Neely was homeless at the time of the incident.

“While we respect the decision of the grand jury to move this case forward to trial, it should be noted that the standard of proof in a grand jury is very low and there has been no finding of wrongdoing. We’re confident that when a trial jury is tasked with weighing the evidence, they will find Daniel Penny’s actions on that train were fully justified,” said Penny’s attorney Steven Raiser in a statement following the indictment.

Attorneys for Neely’s family applauded Penny’s indictment.

“The grand jury’s decision tells our city and our nation that ‘no one is above the law’ no matter how much money they raise, no matter what affiliations they claim, and no matter what distorted stories they tell in interviews,” the attorneys said in a statement.

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