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Inmates at California’s prisons and jails have filed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fraudulent claims since the pandemic arrived, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said Tuesday.

Investigators are still tallying totals after learning of a widespread scheme in September, but the amount of fraudulent claims the state has paid could reach $1 billion, Schubert said in a news conference in Sacramento.

“It is perhaps, and will be, one of the biggest fraud(s) of taxpayer dollars in California history,” she said.

Just from March through August, 35,000 claims were filed in the name of inmates at state prisons, she said. About 20,000 of those claims have been paid, she said, amounting to $140 million in fraudulent payments.

The highest amount paid was about $49,000, and one inmate filed 16 claims, she said.

Those involved have filed claims under addresses in California, other states and even other countries, Schubert said. In some cases, the addresses used for claims were California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation prisons, she said. Some used false names and some used true names.

Murderers, rapists, child molesters and death row inmates have been among the claimants. ...

The district attorneys said neither the Employment Development Department nor Gov. Gavin Newsom have done enough to to try to stop the fraudulent payments, which are ongoing.

Wagstaffe said the department won’t stop payments until criminal charges have been filed.

“They could not cut these people off,” Wagstaffe said. “The fraud was ongoing as we were investigating.”

Schubert called the department’s response “slow and nonexistent,” at least in its response to the group of investigators who are coordinating their efforts across the state. She said the group has received little response from EDD’s top-level management. ...

The vast majority of the stolen money has come from the federal government, which expanded unemployment insurance programs early in the pandemic, including $600 in supplemental weekly payments on top of state unemployment insurance money. ...

“The practical reality is the vast majority of this money will never be repaid,” Pierson said.