I Cannot Directly Blame the COVID Panic Batallions For This But...

Once they started hollering that the sky was falling instead of admitting that the risk was primarily on a small fraction of Americans who were at high risk, while the rest of us were not, this sort of fraud was inevitable.   7/10/25 DOJ press release:

"LOS ANGELES – A Nigerian man living in the San Gabriel Valley was sentenced today to 135 months in federal prison for defrauding California and Nevada out of $1.3 million in COVID-19 pandemic unemployment and disability insurance benefits by submitting more than 100 fraudulent applications using stolen identities and using the money to build a nightclub and mall in Nigeria."

The details reveal a person of considerable cunning and intelligence.  He obtained permanent residency through a fraudulent marriage.