pandemic relief

The Secret Service said an investigation initiated by its Orlando office found that alleged conspirators submitted Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications by using fake or stolen employment and personal information and used an online bank, Green Dot, to conceal and move their criminal proceeds.

The owner of a Massachusetts food truck business who authorities say misused most of the $1.5 million in federal pandemic relief funding he obtained by investing it in the stock market has been arrested, federal authorities said. Loc Vo, 55, faces a charge of wire fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston. Vo owned Smart Gourmet LLC, a…

Over 300,000 low-income essential workers across Massachusetts will begin receiving their second round of stimulus checks this week. The $500 payments were scheduled to be mailed out starting Monday as part of the Baker administration’s COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium program. The first set of these payments were announced in February and distributed to around 480,000 people in March. This round…

The Baker administration is distributing a second round of $500 checks to another 330,000 low-income essential workers across Massachusetts.

Massachusetts has announced it will offer forms of relief to tens of thousands of people who were told they would have to pay back the unemployment benefits they received during the pandemic due to overpayments. Many who received such overpayments will now be eligible for a waiver to avoid paying back the funds. At the start of the pandemic, the…

Roughly half a million people in Massachusetts will receive a check for $500 over the next week as the Baker administration intends to drop the first round of bonus payments in the mail for low-income taxpayers. The bonus-pay program was included in the $4 billion spending bill passed by the Legislature last year allocating state surplus and American Rescue Plan…

About 500,000 low-income workers across Massachusetts will get a $500 payment from the state government next month.

The state primary would be set for Sept. 6 and $55 million would be appropriated for COVID-19 needs, under a bill that began moving in the House on Tuesday. The House Ways and Means Committee gave its members until 10:30 a.m. to weigh in on its redrafted COVID-19 bill, which creates a $30 million reserve to establish and expand COVID…

A Rhode Island man who authorities say submitted fraudulent online applications for coronavirus pandemic related unemployment benefits in eight states while also collecting benefits in his home state has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, federal prosecutors said. Vallah Brown 30, of Providence, collected nearly $50,000 by filing applications for Families First Coronavirus Response Act and Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic…

The Treasury Department said it will begin redirecting more than $1 billion in untapped funds to “high performing” areas

Lawmakers plan to spend $119 million of Rhode Island’s federal pandemic relief money when they return to the State House on Tuesday.