Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) abuse

[AHE]

the Paycheck Protection Program, an emergency stimulus fund offering low-interest, forgivable loans to businesses with fewer than 500 employees, was accessed by financially healthy companies that could have gone without a bailout.

a PPP loan could be used only to meet payroll and pay mortgage interest, leases or utility bills.

“The Trump administration wrote the PPP rules and sent billions of dollars to the well-resourced and well-connected rather than actual small businesses struggling during this public health and economic crisis,” said Kyle Herrig, president of an advocacy group called Accountable.US.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbu ... r-BB19oNwp

[AHE]

A Coppell man who spent more than $17 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans on lavish personal expenses has been charged with filing fraudulent loan applications, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

A federal grand jury indicted Dinesh Sah, 55, on three counts of wire fraud, three counts of bank fraud and one count of money laundering.

PPP funds should be reserved for those who really need them to keep their companies afloat. We are committed to ensuring that anyone that take advantage of the system will be brought to justice. ”

Mr. Sah allegedly submitted 15 fraudulent applications, filed under the names of various purported businesses that he owned or controlled, to eight different SBA-approved lenders seeking approximately $24.8 million in PPP loans, which are guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Sah allegedly claimed that these businesses had numerous employees and hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll expenses – when, in fact, Sah created many of the businesses after the CARES Act was enacted, and no business had employees or paid wages consistent with the amounts claimed in the PPP applications. Sah also submitted fraudulent documentation in support of his applications, including falsified federal tax filings and forged bank statements for the purported businesses.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/co ... -ppp-fraud