SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

Beginning in September of 2020, KCRA 3 Investigates producer Dave Manoucheri and Photographer Victor Nieto began traveling across California and interviewing people in other states as part of an unprecedented documentary project that revealed a wave of problems created by the failures of California's Employment Development Department, or EDD.

With nearly 15 hours of interviews from 17 people – and dozens of hours of news footage — Easy Money tells the story of what is being called the worst fraud in California history.

The documentary can be watched in four chapters below or you can watch the full version by clicking here.

We encourage you to scroll as you go (App users, click HERE for the best mobile experience).

You'll find a timeline of EDD's problems , an interactive quiz that might surprise you about how the fraud operated, examples of other things you could fund with $20 billion from stolen taxpayer money and resources for how to protect your identity.

Chapter 1: The Check’s in the Mail

Fresno realtor Don Scordino was used to arriving at vacant homes and occasionally putting packages inside that a mail carrier dropped off. Usually, the names match up with the owner. That changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One home in southeast Fresno received 67 letters from EDD that listed 10 different names. Another home further south in Beverly Hills had 35 names.

Antelope Valley Assemblymember Tom Lackey began getting letters as early as March of 2020....

Read Full Story: https://www.kcra.com/article/edd-easy-money-fraud-fortune-and-failures-a-kcra...