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. Using that public data, the 9 News Investigators took a close look at PPP loans given out in Louisiana. louisiana ppp loan arrestsanxiety support groups columbia, sc Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation fidelity express money order refund thamani ya rupia ya mjerumani While the multi-million dollar PPP loan scam cases get the national headlines, federal prosecutors are going after PPP loan fraud in all amounts. Lenders approved that amount for eight people, seven of whom got checks. Data analysis could also help the agency assess potential policy changes, and the Biden administration made some changes to make access to relief more equitable earlier this year. According to the MITRE Corporation, a mismatched zip code or insufficient award description doesnt seem particularly egregious. Name Jobs Reported Current Loan Loan Forgiveness; Amount ($) Date Approved Amount ($) Date; CONQUEST COMPLETION SERVICES, LLC: 129: 6,940,800: July 30, 2020: 7,069,157 All totaled, in that city of 43,000 people lenders approved $1.3 million dollars just for barbershop owners. But, in contrast to the False Claims Act where the reward is a minimum 10% of the recovery, FIRREAs whistleblower reward is capped at $1.6 million. The defendants were arrested this morning. Use our searchable database to see who in Louisiana received funds. An October inspector general report states that SBA has fired employees and contractors who were involved in approving loans to themselves or who inappropriately influenced loan approval. The Small Business Administration did not respond to questions, but a spokesperson for the agencys inspector general told POGO that we are aware of one employee and two contractors who have been fired for these reasons. UNION VETERINARY CLINIC, INC. 65780. If the borrower can prove they used the money to pay employees and eligible expenses, they can ask the SBA for loan forgiveness. Compare the spread of the infection with other areas in the U.S. 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. In another case, a Virginia resident obtained over $2.5 million from the Paycheck Protection Program and used the funds to buy not only a luxury car but a private plane. In addition, the defendants falsely listed the same employees in applications for different nail salons to support the loan amounts applied for, and some purported employees were listed as employees of as many as seven different nail salons during the same time period. With more time, we might have been able to implement some preemptive fraud measures, but we knew there would be some fraud, said Kennedy. Red Flags: The First Year of COVID-19 Loan Fraud Cases, $189 Billion in Questionable Paycheck Protection Program Loans, With over $189 billion in questionable Paycheck Protection Program loans, law enforcement has just scratched the surface, By The PPP loan forgiveness is not subject to Louisiana state income tax. One case involves Dinesh Sah, a Dallas-area man, who obtained $17.3 million after having sought a $24.8 million loan. Help us crowdsource fraud detection in the PPP program! One percent of the recovery acts $501 billion in spending would be about $5 billion. The False Claims Act will play a central role in the Departments pursuit of COVID-19 related fraud, Michael Granston, a Justice Department deputy assistant attorney general, said in December. The number of potentially questionable loans approved through these programs is vast, as will be the task of determining how many of those loans were fraudulent or otherwise improper. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. 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. But in the year since the CARES Act became law, it has received nearly 150,000 hotline complaints, representing a 19,500% increase over prior years, according to a staff memo from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justices National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form. Linda Miller, the deputy executive director of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told Federal News Radio in September, My guess is when were all said and done, [the fraud rate is] going to be significantly higher than 5% in the case of the CARES Act. If it is just 5% of the combined $957 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans and Economic Injury Disaster loans and advance grants, that would still be about $48 billion in fraud. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) established by the CARES Act, provides small businesses with funding for payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent, and utilities. Small Business Administration management flagged loans for at least one of 35 reasons, such as the recipient was created after the cutoff date of February 15, 2020, or the recipients owner had a criminal record, potentially rendering the recipient ineligible. Investigators determined there were at least 110 PPP sole proprietor loan applications in and around the Thibodeaux, Louisiana area and they all had the same invoices and federal tax forms (Schedule C) with the same business name and amounts. to fraudulently obtain the loan money. While the Small Business Administration could be doing more with data on the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, the agencys independent watchdog has embraced this work. While not all of these new reports can be attributed to the government relief effort, they are a sizeable share of the increase., Similarly, a February report by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee stated that Identity theft is on the rise and has been exploited by bad actors to obtain pandemic response funds, such as unemployment insurance benefits, PPP loans, and EIDLs., Grossman told POGO, There are also PPP and EIDL cases were aware of that are being investigated by state and local authorities, because my agents out in the field get calls from state police and local police departments, where they have received complaints from citizens on identity theft, for example.. 66625. Louisiana Workforce Commission Suspected Fraud Form. 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. Generally, cases where there is any substantial gray areasuch as a lack of unambiguous evidence of fraud or when it wasnt clear what a government rule requiredare far more likely to lead to civil enforcement, or to no enforcement. The Small Business Administration has sent 1.34 million referrals related to Economic Injury Disaster loans to its office of inspector general, which is tackling these and Paycheck Protection Program fraud cases in coordination with a host of other law enforcement agencies. POGO was unable to reach Edwards before publication. But in March 2021, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General issued a report that found that lenders last year issued more than one Paycheck Protection Program loan to 4,260 borrowers with the same tax identification number and borrowers with the same business name and address. Those loans were worth a total of $692 million. 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. Click on a company's name to see additional loan details. And I, I think we ought to prosecute every single one of them to the full extent of the law, said Kennedy. In December 2020, an independent auditor informed the SBA that, out of 5.2 million Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020, the agency made over 2 million approved PPP loan guarantees worth some $189 billion potentially not in compliance with the law. Saintvils attorney declined to comment. In 2020, applicants could not lawfully receive more than one Paycheck Protection Program loan. Mr. Aqeel asserts his presumption of innocence and demands the United States prove their allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. Mingledorff also said, The case is in the pretrial phase of litigation. When we receive complaints on PPP and EIDL fraud, we immediately coordinate with the Department of Justice, to see what their interest is in the case. The auditor found that the deficiencies were caused by an inadequate entity wide control environment.. According to the Board of Barber Examiners, to legally run a barbershop, an owner must have a business license and a barber license if they are cutting hair even if that business is run out of a home. And these cases are just the beginning. This table shows the top 5 industries in Louisiana by number . The SBA now also conducts manual loan reviews for the largest loans in the PPP portfolio and a random sampling of other loans. Underscoring the tension between fraud prevention and disbursing assistance quickly, the added checks to verify information submitted by applicants have somewhat slowed the processing of loan applications. The agencys Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Brian Grossman told POGO that not all of the referrals relate to the COVID-19 relief lending programs, but many of them do.. The PPP was developed to ease the pain of COVID-19 economic restraints on working Americans. U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Louisiana, Former Louisiana Woman Indicted for Preparing Over 110 Fraudulent PPP Loans Totaling Over $1.1 Million Dollars, 2_ecf_doc_1_-_sharnae_every_indictment_redacted_sanitized.pdf, Dr. Charles J. Southall, III Sentenced to 60 Months in Prison for Money Laundering, Obtaining Over $889,000 Through Fraud, New Orleans Man Sentenced for Theft and Sale of Motor Vehicle from Mississippi Car Dealership, Two More New Orleans Residents Sentenced in Staged Automobile Collision Scheme, Former Louisiana Woman Indicted For Preparing Over 110 Fraudulent PPP Loans Totaling Over $1.1 Million Dollars. For example, in the city of Gonzales, there were 70 people claiming to own a barbershop who applied for loans. An internal analysis last fall by the Small Business Administration identified over 2 million approved PPP loan guarantees worth some $189 billion that were potentially not in compliance with the law, though it may turn out that many of those loans were not fraudulent. A borrower applied for a PPP loan from a lender or bank. Kindambu applied for two Paycheck Protection Program loans representing Papillon Holdings, Inc. and Papillon Air, Inc., according to court documents. On applications for loans for two companies, Greenberg Media Group and DG3 Network, Greenberg allegedly lied about not being under indictment despite having been arrested by federal agents and charged just days earlierwith the indictment a matter of public record. Banks and other lenders have been filing a huge number of suspicious activity reports to the Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (better known as FinCEN) related to the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Whether bad faith was involved is another matter. project, POGO has been examining equitable access to government loans, grants, and contracts. Both programs lacked basic anti-fraud safeguards and the Small Business Administration exercised insufficient oversight, according to the agencys watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, and congressional committees that have investigated the programs. According to an indictment, Sah submitted at least 15 fraudulent applications on behalf of at least 10 companies. Two people were approved for that amount twice, and one of those people got paid twice. The PPP loans are forgivable under certain conditions and the loan forgiveness is not taxable income for federal tax purposes. IRS-Criminal Investigation remains dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure that these types of fraud are investigated and the offenders are punished to the fullest extent of the law.. But, he added, the CARES Act removed that control, calling it a pivotal change.. 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. how to get to quezon avenue mrt station Uncovering hot babes since 1919. The Department of Justice says in Feb. 2021, Gray created a scheme to defraud a lender and the United States, through the Small Business Administration, by filing false applications for PPP. Has the curve flatten in my town? Unfortunately, the owners of Victoria Nails & Spa saw this program as their own personal piggy bank. 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