Top Justice Department official Kevin Chambers will lead a COVID fraud crackdown

• A top Justice Department official was named as the chief prosecutor for COVID-related fraud.
• Kevin Chambers was previously a top white-collar partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins.

There's a new chief prosecutor for the Justice Department's crackdown on COVID-related fraud.

Kevin Chambers, who joined the Justice Department in early 2021 as an associate deputy attorney general, will oversee civil and criminal cases as director of COVID-19 fraud enforcement. He has been serving as a top aide to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

The appointment Thursday follows President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, in which he announced that his administration would be "going after the criminals who stole billions in relief money meant for small businesses and millions of Americans." Biden said the Justice Department would name a chief prosecutor for pandemic fraud, but he did not identify the official.

Before joining the Justice Department, Chambers was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins, where he focused on white-collar defense and led diversity efforts. In 2020, he made more than $3 million representing Facebook, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and other corporate clients, according to his financial disclosure.

Chambers was previously a career prosecutor in the US attorney's office in Washington, DC. At the end of his tenure there, he prosecuted the R&B star Chris Brown on charges he punched a man in the face outside a hotel in downtown Washington.

Brown pleaded guilty in 2014 to a misdemeanor assault charge.

Attorney General Merrick Garland established the COVID-19 fraud enforcement task force in May 2021, within months of his confirmation to lead the Justice Department.

At a meeting of the interagency task force Thursday, Chambers said enforcement efforts would target large-scale criminal organizations that are committing some of the farthest-reaching fraud, "many of them using identity theft to victimize Americans who so needed this relief."

Chambers said the task force would also "prioritize overseas actors who saw our government's relief packages as an opportunity for personal gain."

Even before the Biden administration, the Justice Department moved aggressively to prosecute fraud targeting a COVID relief program designed to help businesses struggling amid the pandemic.

In headline-grabbing cases, the Justice Department has accused individuals of fraudulently obtaining relief loans and using the funds for sports cars, diamond jewelry, home renovations and even trips to Las Vegas.

Since the COVID outbreak, the Justice Department has brought more than 1,000 cases involving losses of more than $1.1. billion.

The Justice Department said it has seized more than $1.2 billion and pursued civil cases against more than 1,800 individuals and businesses, alleging fraud in connection with more than $6 billion in loans.

Chambers said Thursday he was "honored" by the appointment and described the enforcement efforts so far as "impressive.

"And it's made all the more impressive by the fact that all of that was accomplished in the course of an unprecedented global crisis," he said.

But, he added, "the work is by no means done."