OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson says his office has recovered another $9 million in unemployment payments stolen from the state during the pandemic.

Ferguson says his Complex Litigation Division got the money back from accounts held by Bank of America.

His office has recovered a total of almost $34 million in unemployment that the state paid to imposters during the height of the pandemic.

The state Employment Security Department lost about $645 million to fraud but has clawed back about $400 million.

Eleven states were defrauded of a total of over $45 billion while they rushed to pay benefits to workers idled by the pandemic shutdown.