There’s been widespread reporting on the thousands of fraudulent unemployment claims filed with California’s Employment Development Department (EDD).  Less has been written about Bank of America’s (BofA) role in the scandal.  For years the State has contracted with BofA to handle payments via debit cards.  Now questions are being asked about whether the bank failed to implement adequate security measures. 

Unemployed Californians with legitimate claims are facing severe hardships because they haven’t been able to access unemployment payments.  In this story CalMatters asks what went wrong, and why wasn’t fraud detected sooner.

How Bank of America Helped Fuel California’s Unemployment Meltdown