DOJ Announces First Indictments Against Two Individuals Attempting to Fraudulently Claim Funding Under the Paycheck Protection Program
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced indictments against two New England residents for allegedly filing bank loan applications fraudulently seeking more than a half-million dollars in forgivable loans under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The DOJ states that these individuals are the first in the nation charged with allegedly defrauding the CARES Act SBA PPP.
Specifically, a DOJ press release alleges that the two individuals in question claimed to have dozens of employees earning wages at four different entities when, in fact, there were no employees working for any of the businesses. According to court documents, the fraudulent loans were to be used to pay employees of businesses that were not operating prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and had no salaried employees, or, as in one instance, applied for a PPP loan to pay employees at a business in which he had no role or ownership stake.
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