Most Paycheck Protection Program Loans Forgiven Despite Massive Fraud
October 13th, 2022Via: NPR:
As COVID-19 shutdowns threatened businesses back in 2020, the U.S. government began issuing nearly $800 billion in potentially forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans. The program was designed to help small businesses keep workers employed during the uncertain early days of the pandemic.
More than two years later, the overwhelming majority of these loans have transformed into government grants, as 91% have been either fully or partially forgiven, according to an NPR analysis of data released by the Small Business Administration on Oct. 2.
The SBA expects that figure to grow to nearly 100% as more forgiveness requests are processed this fall.
That’s despite claims from University of Texas researchers that about 1.4 million PPP loans show signs of possible fraud, like suspiciously high payrolls and multiple businesses listed at the same residential address. The SBA disputes these findings, but its own inspector general has estimated that at least 70,000 loans were potentially fraudulent.
