Seventeen people were charged Tuesday in connection with a long-running $42.5 million scam that defrauded New York-based programs designed to help Holocaust survivors.

The unsealed charges, brought by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, allege that the defendants processed thousands of fraudulent applications for payouts, often by submitting birth records of people who weren't eligible. Several of the aid recipients were born after World War II, according to prosecutors.

"We...