PPP Loan Fraud

Covid Related Fraud Enforcement Update

Published on: February 19, 2023 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

On May 17, 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the establishment of the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

On March 10, 2022, Garland announced Associate Deputy Attorney General Kevin Chambers as the Director For Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement.

In August, 2022, President Biden signed laws that give the Department of Justice and other federal agencies more time to investigate and prosecute Covid-19 fraud. It extended the statute of limitations for fraud charges involving PPP and EIDL fraud to ten years.

What are the current DOJ priorities?

Published on: April 1, 2022 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

Attorney General Merrick Garland made recent comments about what he considered to be the Department of Justice’s top priorities for 2022. Since taking office in March 2021, Garland has tried to combat crime in a tumultuous time. He has been criticized for his handling of January 6 investigation and has stated it’s the most urgent probe in history.

With all of this going on, the US Attorney’s office increased its prosecutions of individuals of white collar crimes in the year 2021. White collar charges like fraud, theft, corruption, bribery, environmental crime, tax fraud, health care fraud, procurement fraud, money laundering, PPP loan fraud, etc will continue to get more attention from the Department of Justice.

What does this mean? It means that investigations of any sort need to be taken seriously and that you should contact a lawyer immediately if any wrongdoing is alleged.

PPP Loan Fraud Prosecutions Continue

Published on: July 13, 2021 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

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When the PPP program was first created, it was meant to assist business left struggling by the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the key provisions of the program, was that the Small Business Administration (SBA) would guarantee the loan which meant that borrowers could secure loans more easily. As mentioned in a previous blog, the government in the spring of 2020 started to go after the most egregious and problematic PPP loan applications and payments and really ramped up prosecutions.

But now, the DOJ, IRS, SEC etc are shifting their focus to more complex investigations. We have clients where the government is scrutinizing every aspect of the loan application such as

-was the box checked stating that you only had one entity

Covid-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force established

Published on: May 26, 2021 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

The Department of Justice just announced that U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland created COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to enhance enforcement efforts against COVID-19 related fraud.

Cases have included:

Offers to purchase COVID-19 vaccination cards

NEWEST DEVELOPMENTS – PPP Loan Fraud

Published on: February 24, 2021 | By Conaway & Strickler, P.C.

PPP Loan Fraud -NEWEST DEVELOPMENTS

As we continue to see in the news, many cases are being charged by the Department of Justice for PPP (Payroll Protection Program) issues. There continues to be a lot of confusion out there over the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Understandable since information continues to change about how to apply, whether to apply for forgiveness, and the second round of PPP loans being rolled out. Due to the rules and the program itself changing frequently, it is important to not fall under scrutiny by the DOJ.

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has already charged and convicted many cases of PPP loan fraud. But, the purpose of this post is that, recently, the DOJ announced the first (publicized) civil settlement resolving PPP loan fraud allegations against a company and its owner. The owner and SlideBelts, Inc was required to pay a $100k civil penalty per FIRREA civil penalty provision 12 USC 1833a and the False Claims Act (FCA) 31 USC 3729 in the Eastern District of California. The DOJ continues to be aggressive and swift in bringing criminal charges, but, this is the first public civil settlement. Please see https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/press-release/file/1352931/download to read it in its entirety.