Scammers pulled off one of the biggest suspected frauds in U.S. history while laid-off workers scrambled to survive.

A CalMatters investigative series finds that the California Employment Development Department missed red flags and failed to make long-promised changes before the pandemic — and that once the twin crises hit, the state and its top contractors kept making money but were slow to deliver relief.

Internal documents reveal the story behind California’s unemployment crash

The unemployment money that came too late

Inside California’s billion-dollar bet to overhaul unemployment

The lasting toll of California’s COVID layoffs