The Department of Justice and several states from the southeastern United States on Thursday announced a data-sharing agreement between states and the federal government after $350 million in fraud was uncovered in the region.
The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division held a roundtable in Columbia, South Carolina, with U.S. attorneys, attorneys general, and over 50 state officials from across the southeast to discuss a federal-state partnership aimed at combatting fraud.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the DOJ’s fraud arm said the new partnership is intended to protect taxpayer dollars as 12 defendants have been charged with defrauding taxpayer-funded programs since July 4.
“I can’t overemphasize that these are not victimless crimes,” McDonald said. “Every fraud case prevents bread from going to the table of a needy family, or health care from going to the elderly, or a child from receiving the education that they deserve.”
The newly established partnership creates a data-sharing agreement between states and federal partners for the DOJ to access public information, such as registration and payment data, relating to programs including SNAP, Small Business Administration loans, and Medicaid. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina are the seven states entering the agreement.
South Carolina had already begun coordinating with neighboring North Carolina, Attorney General Alan Wilson said. Wilson, who is running for governor, said that through collaborative efforts, prosecutors unveiled a $20 million Medicaid fraud scheme, the largest in state history.
“We need to be cooperating with one another,” Wilson said. “That is the only way we’re going to be able to go after this type of fraud that’s being perpetrated around the country.”
Gov. Henry McMaster said the state-federal partnership was a key factor in stopping drug smugglers from bringing illicit substances into the U.S. during his time as a U.S. attorney in the 1980s, adding that the partnership established on Thursday is a much larger operation.
“This is a nationwide operation that’s going to be pushed by the Department of Justice,” McMaster said. “That will give it the power and the sustainability to get this done.”
U.S. attorneys from across the seven states that have uncovered fraud each took to the podium to describe the different cases of fraud they have uncovered.
SENATE PANEL DELAYS CRITICAL VOTE TO ADVANCE BLANCHE ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINATION
North Carolina Attorney General Alan Jackson framed the collaboration as a symbol of unity in the country.
“This is what a united front looks like,” Jackson said. “We all know there’s a lot of division in the country right now, but we agree on this: the acceptable level of fraud is zero, and as these fraudsters become more sophisticated, so too must the offense that we run, and that’s what we’re here doing today.”