News

A U.K. agency tasked with combating fraud against government loans designed to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 has capacity to conduct only 50 investigations a year despite concerns that criminals targeted the program on an industrial scale. Britain's National Audit Office reported Friday that the National Investigation Service, or Natis, a specialized law-enforcement agency that investigates corruption and organized crime against the public sector, received only £6 million in additional funding to pursue fraudsters who targeted the government's Bounce Back Loan Scheme. Criminals meanwhile stole an estimated £5 billion through fraudulent applications to the program, which ran from May...