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Senator Collins Questions Attorney General Loretta Lynch On IRS Impersonation Scams Targeting Seniors

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Susan Collins questioned newly confirmed Attorney General Loretta Lynch this morning during a hearing of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Budget Request for the 2016 fiscal year. The Senator’s questioning focused in part on the current status of the DOJ’s efforts to combat fraudulent scams targeting our nation’s seniors, a topic investigated last month in the Senate Aging Committee, which Senator Collins chairs. Today’s hearing was the first for Attorney General Lynch since being confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April.

Senator Collins first raised the issue of scams targeting seniors with Ms. Lynch during a meeting in December 2014. In today’s hearing, Senator Collins underscored that “the losses suffered by individual victims are devastating.” Senator Collins also noted her significant frustration that “the federal government has been extraordinarily lax in its approach to actually going after these criminals,” many of whom operate offshore and rely upon advanced communication and payment technologies.

In light of this insufficient response, Senator Collins asked Attorney General Lynch what the DOJ can do “to be more aggressive in prosecuting these scams?”

Attorney General Lynch responded stating that “the troubling factor to me is that many of them target our elderly populations… and the protection of our vulnerable population is one of our priorities.” Attorney General Lynch also noted, “as someone who actually received one of those calls myself, I can tell you, that if one is not aware of essentially the fraudulent nature of them, they can be very disturbing and it is easy to see how our seniors in particular…can get pulled in to that.”

Over the past two years, the Senate Aging Committee has held nine hearings on criminal scams. Prior to Attorney General Lynch’s confirmation, the Department of Justice refused to send a witness to testify in the Aging Committee’s April hearing on the topic of IRS impersonation scams.

In today’s hearing, Senator Collins brought this refusal to appear to the Attorney General’s attention, stating that both she and the ranking member of the Committee, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) found it “appalling.” The Senator asked Attorney General Lynch to pledge “that from now on, the department will cooperate with our investigations.”

In response, the Attorney General stated that she “will always commit to providing [the Senate Aging] committee with the assistance that it needs.”

Click here for a high resolution of Loretta Lynch at the hearing

Click here for a photo of Senator Collins and Attorney General Lynch prior to the hearing (1)

Click here for a photo of Senator Collins and Attorney General Lynch prior to the hearing (2)

Click here for a photo of Senator Collins questioning Attorney General Lynch

Click here for a downloadable link of Senator Collins question