Excerpted from CBS Los Angeles.
Lawmakers have been critical of how Bank of America has handled fraud claims. CBS San Francisco first reported about the fraudsters draining the accounts of unemployed Californians in October. At that time, the EDD office said 350,000 debit card accounts had been frozen due to suspected fraud.
Last week, Bank of America estimated that $2 billion had been stolen from California EDD accounts.
“Every day my office gets calls from desperate constituents,” said Orange County Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, who introduced a bill that would allow those receiving unemployment to get their benefits via direct deposit.
“Which would take Bank of America out of the picture and would close that opportunity for fraud and that opportunity for our citizens to be left without benefits,” she said