Federal prosecutors have charged nearly two dozen people involved in the medical profession with running various fraud schemes to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic of tens of millions of dollars.

The crackdown netted charges against 21 people for conducting various grifts that saw more than $149 million in false COVID-19-related billings to federal programs, officials said.

“While millions of Americans were suffering and desperately seeking testing and treatment for COVID-19, some saw an opportunity to profit, by committing alleged frauds, laundering taxpayer dollars through shell companies and buying luxury goods and lavish homes,” Kenneth Polite Jr., the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a video message.