Every time we have a random fit of conscience and try to do something to help "the normal people", we get assholes like Mitch McConnell who turn it into another give-away for rich fucks.
How Pandemic Aid Attracted Hordes of Gleeful and Gutsy Scammers
The Paycheck Protection Program offered small businesses a few months of relief, but prosecutors will be running down fraud for years.
Chris Hurn wasn’t surprised scammers were trying to get government money. An enormous relief effort like the $523 billion Paycheck Protection Program is bound to attract grifters.
As thousands of applications for government-backed loans flooded into his firm, Fountainhead Commercial Capital, it reported at least 500 suspicious cases to federal officials, Mr. Hurn said. But what shocked him was the brazen glee of the scammers who got money anyway.
At least a dozen times, “someone tried to defraud us, got turned down and then followed up to taunt us that they got their loan,” said Mr. Hurn, Fountainhead’s chief executive.
Four months after the federal government’s signature coronavirus relief program for small businesses expired, investigators and lawmakers have only scratched the surface of schemes that illicitly tapped its forgivable loans. The program’s hastily drafted and frequently revised rules, its removal of normal lending guardrails and governmental pressure to swiftly approve applications created the ideal conditions for thievery to thrive.
“We couldn’t believe how many people were trying to take advantage and game the system,” said Mr. Hurn, whose firm made more than 8,000 loans. “A lot of my employees, including me, were a little frustrated with humanity.”
So far, the Justice Department has brought criminal charges against more than 80 people accused of stealing at least $127 million from the relief program, but there’s far more to uncover. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis said it had identified more than $4 billion in potentially improper loans, and some bankers believe the total will be much higher.
A Small Business Administration fraud hotline that took in 742 complaints in 2019 has received more than 100,000 this year. And there are hundreds of active investigations across more than a dozen government agencies, meaning a program that offered borrowers a few months of relief will spark years of court actions.
In more than a dozen interviews, bank executives described the fraudsters’ methods. Many attempts were lazy and unsophisticated, like listing employees who all made the same salary. Others had many employees collecting a monthly paycheck of $8,333, reflecting a $100,000 salary, the largest that a Paycheck Protection Program loan could be used to subsidize.
Fabricated documents were also common: doctored payroll lists, faked business tax returns and modified bank statements. One lender, who asked for anonymity to describe her company’s security measures, used a software tool to detect alterations on PDF files; it flagged thousands of forgeries.
The piece goes on of course, and lays out how bad it is - and will continue to be - and how it'll probably get worse. You get the picture.
Smart countries (ie: practically every country but this one) came up with programs that put money directly into the pockets of quarantined &/or laid-off workers.
But USAmerica Inc always labors under the phony concocted notion that the companies have to be first in line, because the bosses will make good decisions for the wage-earners, who are after all, like stupid children and therefore unable to handle the money properly and blah blah blah.
I wonder when "the common sense crowd" will begin to demonstrate they've got some.
Like grandma always said:
"Water the roots, dummy - not the leaves."
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