TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Sep 11, 2020

The U.S. Justice Department has charged 57 people with trying to steal more than $175 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds, which were designed to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a press conference yesterday, federal officials said some of those charged lied about their business needs to access money that they then spent on “luxury cars, homes, renovations, diamond jewelry, even adult entertainment and trips to Las Vegas.” Also among those charged were “coordinated criminal rings” that took part in “systematic, organized conduct to loot the PPP.” The attempts to steal more than $175 million resulted in actual losses of $70 million. The government has so far been able to recover more than $30 million, Yahoo Finance reports.