They stole 300 billion during the pandemic.

In the spring of 2020, the world just stopped.

As a terrifying new health crisis swept the globe,

millions of Americans worried about their health,

their jobs, and their families.

To keep the country from sinking the the U.S. government responded with the largest financial

relief effort in history, a multi-trillion dollar lifeline.

But while the nation was locked down, a different kind of crisis was unfolding.

Thousands of criminals were getting organized for the biggest heist in American history.

They didn't need guns or getaway cars.

They used laptops, lies, and the government's own desperation against it.

They siphoned away a flood of cash that was meant for struggling families and businesses. We'll likely never know the full extent of the damage,

but the official estimate is that hundreds of billions of dollars were stolen.

This is the story of how they did it,

and the massive ongoing investigation

to bring more than 3,000 people to justice.

The perfect storm.

When Congress passed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020, the mission was simple.

Get money into people's hands and get it there fast. Two programs in particular opened the

floodgates, the Paycheck Protection Program or PPP, and the economic injury disaster

loan program known as EIDL. These programs were supposed to be a lifeline. PPP offered loans to

small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll. Loans that could be forgiven.

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