Ferguson is a swamp creature. His "innovative fraud recovery program" maps the money. 
The report claims "it caught the fraud within the first two weeks". The first week an employee applies is a waiting period and unemployment contacts the employer for verification - first check is paid in the second week. 
We're thankful for our partnership with the Attorney General," said Commissioner Cami Feek, "It’s wonderful to see our collaboration and hard work paying off. [damage control]

[Reminder]
AG Ferguson’s innovative unemployment fraud recovery initiative nets $42 million
       
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sep 21 2023

Ferguson one of the only state AGs to use forfeiture laws to recoup stolen funds

SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that an innovative fraud recovery initiative netted a total of $42 million in stolen funds from 26 financial institutions. 

The announcement marks the end of Ferguson’s first phase to retrieve money from banks and other financial institutions where scammers still had remaining funds. While multiple states suffered substantial losses, Ferguson was the first and remains one of the only state attorneys general who exercised state asset forfeiture powers to recover these taxpayer dollars. As a result, Washington has recovered a total of more than $420 million in stolen funds. The Attorney General’s Office will continue to assist in federal investigations to recover stolen funds, as well as investigate any liability of banks and financial technology companies for Washington’s losses.

“Our innovative use of the law to recover stolen funds led the nation,” Ferguson said. “We delivered results for taxpayers and unemployed Washingtonians.”

Beginning in April 2020, Washington's unemployment insurance program was one of the first to suffer an unprecedented and massive nationwide attack of imposter fraud. 

Sophisticated fraud rings used identity data harvested from data breaches to steal billions of dollars from 53 government programs that received federal pandemic unemployment benefits, according to a recent government accountability report. While the exact extent of the fraud is still unknown, the same report estimated losses to fraud nationally to be as much as $135 billion.Graphic with one bar showing the $423.6 million recovered next to a bar showing $223.4 million is not recovered.

Soon after the thefts, Ferguson initiated an investigation searching for bank accounts where scammers did not withdraw all their stolen funds and launched a legal effort to reclaim these funds for the state. To date, financial institutions across the country cooperated with the investigation. Essentially, the Attorney General recovered stolen money in accounts at banks and other financial institutions that criminals were unable to withdraw.

Washington state’s Employment Security Department estimates that during the COVID-19 pandemic, fraudulent claims accounted for $647 million, or 3%, of the overall $21.7 billion in unemployment benefits paid to workers. The state has recovered $423.6 million so far – more than two-thirds of the stolen funds. The Attorney General’s innovative use of forfeiture laws brought in 10% of that total.

This leaves approximately $223.4 million lost to fraud so far, which amounts to 1% of the total $21.7 billion in benefits. Consequently, 99% of the unemployment benefits went, as intended, to support workers during the pandemic.
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