In connection with these loan applications, the defendants falsely and grossly overstated the number of employees at the Victoria Companies and wages paid to those employees in order to obtain larger loans. Lawmaker wants police trained to handle Alzheimers, dementia patients, Health Minute: First at-home flu and COVID test authorized. 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. Normally, our agents work a contract or procurement fraud case those can take several years to investigate, Grossman said. However, industry insiders say the barbershop industry is largely cash-based, making it easy to operate under the radar. Inaccuracies in the data or missing data can undermine oversight. Unfortunately, the owners of Victoria Nails & Spa saw this program as their own personal piggy bank. POGO was unable to reach Edwards before publication. Meant to help small businesses keep workers on the payroll, the Paycheck Protection Program offers loans of up to $10 million that can be forgiven in full if recipients meet certain employee retention requirements. The addresses listed for the two companies, according to SBA loan data, also do not match the addresses in the states corporation recordsyet another sign of potential fraud. The PPP loan forgiveness is not subject to Louisiana state income tax. Thats more than 10 times the fraud recoveries five years after the 2009 stimulus became law. More than a year after the pandemic brought much of the economy to a standstill, mounting fraud cases underscore how the Small Business Administrations (SBA) oversight of its massive taxpayer-backed lending programs proved to be inadequate as they became magnets for fraudsters. But according to the Justice Department, neither company paid anywhere near the purported amounts and had few if any employees. Kindambu pleaded guilty in January. 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. The case against EVERY began as a result of a referral from the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) regarding possible fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loans (PPP). Please click here for further information. In a case that garnered national attention, the U.S. Secret Service seized over $8.4 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds from a seemingly bogus ministry in Orlando, Florida that had no apparent operations at its physical location and a website filled with generic language taken from other religious organizations. ), 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.. The cash injection and potentially forgivable loans were . & SOUTHERN MAGNOLIA LANDSCAPING LLC. Suspicious activity reports for small business loan fraud continued at levels far higher than normal through the end of 2020, according to POGOs review of federal data. PPP Loan Recipient List By State Louisiana 217,332 TOTAL PPP LOANS $12.2B TOTAL LOAN AMOUNT $56,095 AVERAGE PPP LOAN 6 AVG COMPANY SIZE Louisiana has a total of 217,332 businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the Small Business Administration. Some of these qui tam lawsuits are traditional whistleblower cases, but others involve individuals who are slicing and dicing the data that has been made available about loans, according to Grossman. In addition to automated checks against existing government databases, lenders could have conducted online searches or called businesses neighboring a loan applicant to help establish whether the company seeking the loan is real or is the size it claims to be. Businesses applying for a PPP loan must provide documentation to confirm that they have previously paid employees the compensation represented in the loan application. Identity theft is probably the most common underlying cause of the fraud that were finding, particularly in the EIDL program, SBA Inspector General Hannibal Mike Ware said in testimony before Congress in late March. Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite, Eastern Region Special Agent-in-Charge of the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA-OIG), William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Jonathan D. Larsen, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announced today the arrests of NGOC MANH NGUYEN, a/k/a Peter Nguyen, VICTORIA DIEUY HO, a/k/a Vicky Ho, and DAT TAT HO for a fraudulent scheme to obtain over $13 million in Government-guaranteed loans designed to provide relief to small businesses during the novel coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. Does something look fishy to you? When the bank froze the funds, they froze as well, conducting Internet searches for topics related to PPP fraud. Act 311 of the 2020 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature allocated federal CARES Act funds to provide grants of up to $15,000 to eligible small businesses through a program administered by the Louisiana Department of Treasury. The Department of Justice (DOJ) says as of Aug. 8, more than 5.2 million forgivable loans have been approved, at a total of more than $525 billion. Faa sua busca no site. The offices 44 investigators have been working at least three times the caseload that theyre usually used to working. The FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and other offices of inspectors general are also part of the federal law enforcement effort. (He also applied for a separate loan just days before being indicted.) Using a telemarketing scheme called My Buddy Loans, the telemarketing scheme exploited those seeking assistance during the COVID pandemic, including many who were over the age of 55, according to a Small Business Administration inspector general agent quoted in a Justice Department press release. The CARES Act precluded the agency from exercising one important check on fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. 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. An Archdale man was arrested after authorities say he falsely received more than $1.5 million in COVID-19 relief money through the Paycheck Protection Program. It was this difficult road that we had about a week, but our bankers got it done and, and our businesswomen and businessmen stepped up to the plate and took advantage of it, said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. Grossman told POGO, we expect a lot more civil enforcement.. As of this month, weve seized over $580 million from over 23,000 fraudulent EIDL loans., Weve got a process in place that once weve identified, for instance, a bank account that has money sitting in it, that was deposited through a fraudulent EIDL loan, we contact the Secret Service, and they have a method to go in and seize those funds, Grossman said. The prosecution of this case is being handled by the Offices Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. At $367 billion, the amount of disaster funds provided through the EIDL COVID program is more than three times the amount of disaster loan funds approved for all disasters combined since the SBA was created in 1953, wrote Jovita Carranza, then-head of the Small Business Administration, in December 2020. 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. Under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, passed as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, (CARES II), individuals began receiving automatically a second round of Economic Impact Payments of up to $600 for individuals or $1,200 for married couples and up to $600 for each qualifying child beginning in December. For more information on the Department of Justices response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. 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. The Justice Department brought civil claims against the company under both the False Claims Act and Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Louisiana has a total of 217,332 businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the Small Business Administration. At the request of WAFB, the Louisiana Board of Barber Examiners also searched their apprentice, student, barber, and shop records for those eight names and addresses, and came up empty as well. He allegedly sought to obtain a total of more than $1.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans, at least $937,000 of which he successfully obtained. He said that lenders have been extremely cooperative during investigations and their suspicious activity reports have been very useful.. Check out bed occupancy rate of hospitals. Byron Henderson If youre going to steal money, finite resources from people who need them, then, by God, were going to prosecute you.. With more time, we might have been able to implement some preemptive fraud measures, but we knew there would be some fraud, said Kennedy. A total of 73,824 loans were distributed to Louisiana leading to a reported 799,664 jobs being retained. Additionally, CARES II provides up to $300 in weekly supplemental unemployment benefits. Nearly 11.5 million people filed applications, resulting in more than $792 billion worth of loans. It Got a PPP Loan. 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. (In late March, the Justice Department told Congress that it had charged $446.8 million in losses related to PPP. Some of these cases may still be under seal and charges are routinely being unsealed.) According to a court filing signed by a Secret Service agent, a family of four was behind a scheme Normally, the agency can require loan applicants to fill out a form allowing the agency to verify their tax information with the Internal Revenue Service. Does something look fishy to you? The oversight failures of the last year have become increasingly clear, eventually leading to changes. Maybe, maybe not all.. EVERY then charged approximately $3,500.00 once the loans were funded. 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. Two people were approved for that amount twice, and one of those people got paid twice. The Small Business Administration has said victims of identity theft will not have to repay the loans fraudulently obtained in their name, but some individuals have told media outlets the agency has not promptly resolved their cases. Louisiana. Help us crowdsource fraud detection in the PPP program! It soon became apparent that the Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs setup also made it particularly susceptible to fraud. 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. 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. More due diligence on the part of lenders or the Small Business Administration could have prevented at least some instances of fraud. Louisiana Workforce Commission Suspected Fraud Form. The CARES Act provided $600 weekly supplemental unemployment benefits for individuals out of work for reasons related to the pandemic. But, in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, the Small Business Administration has not conducted robust data analysis to find instances of loans and grants that may have been fraudulently obtained, according to the Government Accountability Office. Qui tam complaints are filed under seal Has the curve flatten in my town? But the government could have implemented these safeguards from the beginning, which may have prevented significant levels of apparent fraud in the program. (WAFB) - Since the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) launched to help businesses pay their employees to prevent great losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some people have of course tried to exploit the program and defraud the federal government of money. 9,060 loans. Brian Grossman, the Small Business Administrations assistant inspector general for investigations, told POGO that as of March 10, 2021, the watchdog office had 91 active Paycheck Protection Program investigations and 121 active Economic Injury Disaster loan investigations. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, there have been dozens of people charged with fraud nationwide and there are five pending Federal civil procedures where agencies are looking to get back $2.3 million worth of fraudulent assets including two high-end cars, a house, and cash. Law enforcement insiders say many more pandemic loan fraud cases will be brought in the months and years ahead. Sah submitted falsified tax and payroll documentation in which he claimed to have numerous employees and hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll expenses, according to a Justice Department press release, but none of the businesses he sought loans for had any employees. Whistleblowers Said This Company Is a Fake Small Business. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) established by the CARES Act, provides small businesses with funding for payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent, and utilities. project, POGO has been examining equitable access to government loans, grants, and contracts. POGOs analysis of the first full years worth of Paycheck Protection Program fraud cases found that in at least: Some of these cases involve multiple defendants. Thanks to the combined efforts of the SBA, the FBI, and IRS-CI, the defendants face prosecution., SBA-OIG Special Agent-in-Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite said: Falsifying documents to fraudulently gain access to SBA program funds is unconscionable. When the government spends money, taxpayers deserve to know how it was spent, Clarion Ledger Editor Marlon A. Walker says. The scandal is whats legal, not whats illegal.. The forgivable loans were meant to cover payroll for employees and, later, other eligible expenses at a time when customers werent coming in. NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced today the indictment of SHARNAE EVERY (EVERY), age 27, of Houston, Texas, who was charged with one (1) count of Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349 and two (2) counts of Mail Fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341. Official websites use .gov Its the first public case of fraud in these pandemic loan programs attributed to corruption within the agencys own ranks. Representative James Clyburn (D-SC), chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, said in the March 25 hearing that the Trump administration ignored flags of potential fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and approved loans in batches with little to no vetting and abandoned a rule that required two SBA employees to approve each loan application., The Trump administration ignored flags of potential fraud, While a year has passed since the CARES Act became law and there are more checks now, government watchdogs say the Small Business Administrations oversight of the lending programs is still inadequate. AGs Office announces more than 50 arrests connected to Paycheck Protection Program fraud. Marion State Bank. portville central school yearbooks; jennette mccurdy astroseek. According to todays indictment, EVERY created a fictitious business called Natural Hair Afro, LLC, Houma, LA 70360 and used this fictitious business name on nearly all of the fraudulent PPP loan applications. The Justice Department said law enforcement arrested defendants in Miami on Wednesday and Thursday who officials allege are involved in a "criminal ring" that attempted to steal $24 million in. The Biden administration published a fact sheet on February 2 detailing new measures to prevent fraud in the program. What happens when the watchdog tasked with overseeing the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country doesnt do its job? Thats because, at least in part, its optional for loan applicants to supply that information. There is abundant evidence that there was too little upfront vetting of loan applications in both the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. 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. She's accused of making up fake businesses to collect more than $20,000 through. That story of corruption inside SBA has been overshadowed by other criminal allegations against Greenberg, notably child sex trafficking charges, and a scandal that might bring down a member of Congress. So were trying to reverse that. On March 30, the Justice Department unveiled new charges against Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector. ggdc fulfill service phone number; copenhagen, denmark circle houses for sale; living together in kuwait; brandi carlile brother jay; houston film festival; terrenos de venta en palmview, tx; louisiana ppp loan arrests. For example, in the city of Gonzales, there were 70 people claiming to own a barbershop who applied for loans. EVERY created all of the false and fraudulent invoices, bank statements, and Schedule Cs. EVERY advertised under various aliases on Facebook to recruit individuals to obtain money from the PPP program. In less than six months, more than 50 people have been charged with allegedly committing fraud in connection with the program. The Small Business Administration distributed 5.8 million advance grants worth $20 billion last year (despite the name, these are not loans that have to be repaid). The three Economic Injury Disaster loans Greenberg obtained should have triggered red flags galore. I urge anyone who believes he or she is a victim of this type of fraud to report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud," said US Attorney Brandon Fremin. Under the False Claims Act (FCA) as well as the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), either the government or whistleblowers with non-public information can initiate civil enforcement actions. Based on the fraudulent PPP loan applications submitted by NGUYEN, VICTORIA HO, and DAT HO, a total of more than $13 million in PPP loans were approved for the Victoria Companies and approximately $7.8 million in loan proceeds were disbursed into bank accounts controlled by NGUYEN, DAT HO, and other family members. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Senator Kennedy admits the program may have had some holes in it, due to how quickly it was rolled out, and the loan program has been updated many times to expand eligibility. After the defendants learned that a hold was placed on bank accounts of the Victoria Companies that received PPP loans issued by one financial institution due to suspicion of fraudulent activity, one of the defendants conducted Internet searches for PPP Fraud, PPP Loan Fraud Arrests, and How to get rid of a PPP Loan. The defendants thereafter withdrew the applications for and/or repaid the PPP loans for the Victoria Companies issued by that financial institution. All rights reserved. Joshua Edwards, the supposed vice president of ASLAN International Ministry, is accused of submitting fake payroll, tax, and financial documentation in support of the loan application. More than 1,400 institutions had filed SARs related to PPP, and more than 900 institutions had filed SARs related to EIDL.. PPP Loans in Raceland, LA - Page 13. Sah, who pleaded guilty on March 24, used the funds to buy a Bentley convertible and multiple homes, among other things. 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. However, both Kennedy and Ricks say the good the program did far outweigh any possible fraud. At least one Small Business Administration employee allegedly took bribes last year to process fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster loans, according to criminal charges recently unveiled by the Justice Department related to the developing scandal involving Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL). This March, the Government Accountability Office added the Small Business Administrations emergency loan programs for small businesses to its biennial high-risk list of executive branch programs vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or that need transformation.. The only way you can reverse those things is by understanding the metrics behind it and to have real goals around them.. BATON ROUGE, La. The auditor found that the deficiencies were caused by an inadequate entity wide control environment.. EVERY prepared and submitted false and fraudulent PPP sole proprietor loan applications via various online portals including, but not limited, to Blueacorn. Since last October, when POGO published a report examining trends in Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud at the programs six-month mark, several eye-popping cases of alleged fraud have emerged. With over 18 million Paycheck Protection Program loans and pandemic-related Economic Injury Disaster loans and advance grants approved over the last year, there is a sea of data on these programs. Who in Louisiana got Paycheck Protection Program loans during the pandemic? On June 28, 2020, the day loan applications were filed for the two companies, Greenberg reinstated the companies with Floridas state government since they had been administratively dissolved years prior to the February 2020 eligibility cutoff. As far as the state of Louisiana is concerned, there is no requirement that a sole proprietor have a specific license at the state, said Ricks. The Small Business Administration has released a list of businesses that have received emergency pandemic loans. This table shows the top 5 industries in Louisiana by number . In email and text exchanges, defendants acknowledged that a number of the companies did no legitimate business, disqualifying them from receiving the loans. NGUYEN and DAT HO will be presented in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in connection with these and other unrelated charges. PPP loan information is available to the public through the SBA, and several groups have even published that information in the form of online searchable databases that anyone can use. 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. The defendants were arrested this morning. A picture from that stay shows Pape and Jung celebrating over sparkling wine. Jungs attorney declined to comment, and Papes attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Public Information Director A Project On Government Oversight (POGO) review of court filings up to April 2, 2021, found that the charged individuals allegedly sought a total of nearly $445 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans. Using that public data, the 9 News Investigators took a close look at PPP loans given out in Louisiana. More than half of that amount$246 millionactually went to accused fraudsters. POGO has sought additional data from the Small Business Administration, and to improve data collection. Copyright 2020 WAFB. SBA has fired employees and contractors who were involved in approving loans to themselves or who inappropriately influenced loan approval. Eastern District of Louisiana Louisiana PPP loan fraud cases may be initiated by employees of banks who disperse PPP funds in Louisiana, employees of companies who have received CARES Act aid in Louisiana, or any other individual who has inside information on a PPP loan fraud case originating in Louisiana. Aqeel and others in the scheme allegedly used loan funds to pay individuals they claimed were employees but were actually fake employees, according to a court filing. The PPP loans are forgivable under certain conditions and the loan forgiveness is not taxable income for federal tax purposes. (212) 637-2600, Human Trafficking & Child Sexual Exploitation, Department of Justice Harassment Prevention Resource, Download Ngoc Manh Nguyen et al. 8851 center dr la mesa, ca 91942; chamberlain graduation 2023; fun sober things to do on a friday night. The Department of Justice confirms they are looking into reports of PPP fraud across the nation. The SBA Employee would and did use her access to the SBAs computer systems and her access to EIDLs to manipulate the status of EIDLs to trigger the system to extend funding for EIDLs submitted for the benefit for Joel Micah Greenberg, the indictment alleges. Ms. Strauss praised the investigative work of the SBA-OIG, FBI, and IRS-CI, and noted that the investigation remains ongoing. Federal investigators want you to speak up about PPP fraud, Federal investigators want you to speak up about PPP Fraud, LSU WR Malik Nabers arrested in New Orleans; prosecutors refuse to charge with condition, LPSO: Deputy arrested, terminated after making harassing phone calls, TikTok sets new default time limits for minors, Fight involving 9 people on Southerns campus leads to 1 arrest. Not all those loans were necessarily fraudulently obtained. Civil enforcementwhere the evidentiary burden is lower than in criminal casesis another way of holding individuals and companies accountable. That situation may arise in cases of apparent fraud involving Economic Injury Disaster loan advance grants of $10,000 or less. In Louisiana, a federal grand jury recently indicted a Plaquemine woman named Lestreonia Rodrigue on fraud charges. 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