The Justice Department has brought criminal charges against at least 209 individuals in 119 cases related to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud since banks and other lenders began processing loan applications on behalf of the Small Business Administration on April 3, 2020. If Congress amends the underutilized Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, efforts by inspectors general to fight fraud in pandemic related spending would be enhanced, according to Horowitzs testimony. (Eligible companies and nonprofit organizations can apply for and receive both Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster loans.). For much of 2020, the agency also issued grants of up to $10,000 under the program that do not have to be repaid by eligible recipients. Maybe, maybe not all.. However, both Kennedy and Ricks say the good the program did far outweigh any possible fraud. The DOJ says falsified tax records were submitted and in some cases, stolen personal information was also used in these attempts to defraud the PPP. Theyre not checking licenses. And this is not the only case. Nearly a dozen of those people took out two loans. Its the first public case of fraud in these pandemic loan programs attributed to corruption within the agencys own ranks. About one year after the passage of the CARES Act, $626 million in funds have already been seized or forfeited related to criminal and civil investigations of pandemic loan fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. It was this difficult road that we had about a week, but our bankers got it done and, and our businesswomen and businessmen stepped up to the plate and took advantage of it, said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. If convicted, EVERY faces a maximum penalty of twenty (20) years, followed by a term of supervised release for up to three (3) years, a fine up to $250,000.00, or twice the gross gain to the defendant, or twice the gross loss to any victim, and a $100.00 mandatory special assessment fee, per count. To me, its like looting after a hurricane. NGUYEN, 44, and VICTORIA HO, 31, both of Hicksville, New York, and DAT HO, 33, of the Bronx, New York, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; one count of major fraud against the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and one count of conspiracy to make false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. According to court records, Amir Aqeel and several others in the Houston area allegedly created fake tax and payroll documentation in exchange for large kickbacks for referring others into the scheme that involved 12 corporate entities. Horowitz, the Justice Departments inspector general, recently testified to a House panel examining COVID-19 loan fraud that a legislative reform could help address the problem of fraud in smaller dollar amounts. The loans have to be repaid with low interest. Loans through that program were directly processed by the Small Business Administration, while in the Paycheck Protection Program, loans were primarily processed by banks and other lenders. One case involved applications for hundreds of allegedly fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster loans and at least a $1.3 million loss to the federal government. Two of the companies, Symbiont Retailers and Horizon Enterprises, were not in good standing before the Paycheck Protection Program began. The cases involve attempts to steal a total of more than $175 million from the program, with actual losses to the federal government totaling more than $70 million, the DOJ reports. Whether bad faith was involved is another matter. Louisiana Department of Revenue Identity Theft Affidavit, Louisiana Workforce Commission Suspected Fraud Form. With over 18 million Paycheck Protection Program loans and pandemic-related Economic Injury Disaster loans and advance grants approved over the last year, there is a sea of data on these programs. The oversight failures of the last year have become increasingly clear, eventually leading to changes. Other government agencies also submit referrals of potential fraud to the office of inspector general, and suspicious activity reports come in through the financial industry by way of the Treasury Department. From at least in or about April 2020 through at least in or about June 2020, NGUYEN, VICTORIA HO, and DAT HO engaged in a scheme to submit online applications to at least two financial institutions for a total of over $13 million in government-guaranteed loans for the Victoria Companies through the SBAs PPP. In one of the most complex cases to emerge since POGOs original analysis, at least seven individuals were indicted in a scheme that allegedly involved over 80 applications seeking a total of $30 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans. ggdc fulfill service phone number; copenhagen, denmark circle houses for sale; living together in kuwait; brandi carlile brother jay; houston film festival; terrenos de venta en palmview, tx; louisiana ppp loan arrests. Marion State Bank. Byron Henderson As former federal prosecutor Tarek Helou told the Wall Street Journal, The scandal is whats legal, not whats illegal., Lenders may also be more likely to face civil enforcement than criminal enforcement. Pape and Jung used more than $3600 from the fraud scheme to pay for a stay at a resort in San Antonio, Texas, according to the Justice Department. We will also begin processing paper returns downloaded from the LDR website at, The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided Economic Impact Payments of $1,200 for qualifying individuals and $2,400 for qualifying married couples, with an additional $500 per dependent child. The cash injection and potentially forgivable loans were . So were trying to reverse that. This March, the Government Accountability Office revealed that 4 months after SBA started using a system to approve Economic Injury Disaster loans in batches, agency officials realized this system contained alerts that should have been reviewed by loan officers, but had not been. SOUTHERN CLASSIC OF FARMERVILLE LLC. One percent of the recovery acts $501 billion in spending would be about $5 billion. My feeling is that despite the fraud, the program helped far, far, far more of my people than it hurt, said Kennedy. Babysitter arrested after 5-year-old fatally shot by 6-year-old cousin. (In late March, the Justice Department told Congress that it had charged $446.8 million in losses related to PPP. Some of these cases may still be under seal and charges are routinely being unsealed.) You know, is it something that they should have done? Investigators say those accused made false statements about things like how many people they employ, their average monthly revenue, and payroll figures. Thanks to the combined efforts of the SBA, the FBI, and IRS-CI, the defendants face prosecution., SBA-OIG Special Agent-in-Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite said: Falsifying documents to fraudulently gain access to SBA program funds is unconscionable. Ms. Strauss also thanked Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York for their assistance with the investigation. On March 30, the Justice Department unveiled new charges against Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector. Act 12 of the 2020 First Extraordinary Session of the Louisiana Legislature provided for a one-time $250 rebate for eligible workers earning $50,000 per year or less, who spent at least 200 hours responding to or mitigating the COVID-19 crisis from March 22, 2020, through May 14, 2020. Shes accused of making up fake businesses to collect more than $20,000 through a PPP loan and another $500,000 in prepaid debit cards through unemployment claims. The auditor found that the deficiencies were caused by an inadequate entity wide control environment.. The scandal is whats legal, not whats illegal.. of Loans Jobs Retained These cases further highlight the ways individuals appear to have taken advantage of lax oversight in the program. Not all those loans were necessarily fraudulently obtained. An official website of the United States government. In Louisiana, a federal grand jury recently indicted a Plaquemine woman named Lestreonia Rodrigue on fraud charges. Its up to the SBA and the Justice Department to go after anyone caught stealing PPP money. For instance, the department may decline cases involving smaller-dollar amounts, especially in busier U.S. attorneys offices around the country, Grossman said. PPP Fraud in Pride, Louisiana. The Veterans Administration, Office of the Inspector General, is an active member of the PRAC Fraud Task Force. If approved, the SBA pays the lender back using federal funds. For media inquiries, contact: Not all the blame can be placed at the Small Business Administrations feet. Representative James Clyburn (D-SC), chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, said in the March 25 hearing that the Trump administration ignored flags of potential fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and approved loans in batches with little to no vetting and abandoned a rule that required two SBA employees to approve each loan application., The Trump administration ignored flags of potential fraud, While a year has passed since the CARES Act became law and there are more checks now, government watchdogs say the Small Business Administrations oversight of the lending programs is still inadequate. Who in Louisiana got Paycheck Protection Program loans during the pandemic? 5 min read. EVERY created all of the false and fraudulent invoices, bank statements, and Schedule Cs. The only way you can reverse those things is by understanding the metrics behind it and to have real goals around them.. The nonprofit MITRE Corporation found more than 85% of Paycheck Protection Program loan recipients did not indicate their race or ethnicity in their loan applications, Earlier this year, the Biden administration revamped the Paycheck Protection Program loan application to encourage self-reporting of demographic data and better illustrate the impact the PPP is having across various population segments. But the Small Business Administration acknowledged, as of late March, there is still limited demographic data on PPP borrowers.. SBA has fired employees and contractors who were involved in approving loans to themselves or who inappropriately influenced loan approval. A vast number of referrals to the Small Business Administrations (SBA) Office of Inspector General involve complaints of identity theft, particularly related to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. An Archdale man was arrested after authorities say he falsely received more than $1.5 million in COVID-19 relief money through the Paycheck Protection Program. The PPP loans are forgivable under certain conditions and the loan forgiveness is not taxable income for federal tax purposes. For instance, in a review for the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, the nonprofit MITRE Corporation examined a sample of 500 records for Paycheck Protection Program loans above $150,000. As part of its own COVID-19 relief spending tracker Analyzing that data for red flags is a way to identity subsets of loans and grants that warrant closer scrutiny and to help direct scarce investigative resources. BATON ROUGE, La. According to Grossman, the Small Business Administration watchdog official, all of our ongoing investigations involve individual borrowers rather than lenders. With the investigation borrowers rather than lenders these pandemic loan programs attributed to corruption the! 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