Number of the Day
Billions of PPP Dollars Went to Potentially Fraudulent Businesses
To the grifters go the spoils
$4.2 billion: That’s the value of 22,529 loans issued under the Paycheck Protection Program that were identified as being subject to “fraud, waste, or abuse” in an October report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
A separate investigation by the Wall Street Journal identified around $2 billion in PPP loans that had been issued to 1,500 companies facing allegations of violating government regulations or criminal conduct, and another 432 companies that laid off workers after getting approved for a total of nearly $1 billion in loans. The Justice Department has charged more than 80 people with fraudulently obtaining relief loans, but that appears to be the just tip of the iceberg.
Other less-than-reputable organizations have received money from the program as well. An NBC investigation last month found that 14 organizations designated as hate groups by the American Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center each received between $51,000 and $1.3 million in PPP money. Yahoo! News reported yesterday that Epoch Times, a pro-Trump media outlet that spread coronavirus misinformation, received between $150,000 and $350,000 from the program.
