The National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) is in Baton Rouge and reports can be filed here. This is your state and county equivalent level look at how many have gotten a dose or doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. $12.2B TOTAL LOAN AMOUNT. In December 2020, an independent auditor informed the SBA that, out of 5.2 million Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020, the agency made over 2 million approved PPP loan guarantees worth some $189 billion potentially not in compliance with the law. 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. In less than six months, more than 50 people have been charged with allegedly committing fraud in connection with the program. What happens when the watchdog tasked with overseeing the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country doesnt do its job? But in the year since the CARES Act became law, it has received nearly 150,000 hotline complaints, representing a 19,500% increase over prior years, according to a staff memo from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. This interactive map provides a picture of the ranks of the unemployed at the national, state and county level. Faa sua busca no site. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. As the lending programs ramped up last summer, there was a spike in suspicious activity reports from banks and other lenders flagging potential fraud. (WAFB) - The Paycheck Protection Program, known as PPP, provided a lifeline for millions of business owners when the pandemic was at its worst. PPP Loan Recipient List By State . The release states that, In exchange for a fee, My Buddy Loans took personal identifying information from victims and promised to file an application for an agricultural grant, which they said was available to those who owned a few acres of land. Instead, the defendants Clifton Pape, 45, and Sally Jung, 58, both of Cleveland, Texas, actually filed fraudulent EIDL applications with the SBA that contained the victims personal identification information.. 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. According to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, the SBA Office of Inspector General has received nearly 750,000 referrals of suspected identity theft related to the program over the last year. IRS-Criminal Investigation remains dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure that these types of fraud are investigated and the offenders are punished to the fullest extent of the law.. Qui tam complaints are filed under seal Please click here for further information. 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. 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. Indeed, on the day lenders began processing applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans last year, Small Business Administration Inspector General Hannibal Mike Ware issued a white paper outlining lessons learned from previous stimulus loan programs. Official websites use .gov POGO found that 11 of the 15 loans were funded. We dont have the capacity to work everything that comes in, Grossman told POGO. He warned that increased loan volume, loan amounts, and expedited loan processing timeframes may make it more difficult for SBA to identity red flags in loan applications. The inspector general called for the agency to put in place sufficient controls, but the agency did not heed the watchdogs warnings at that time. 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. Barbershops were one of the most common businesses to apply. Public Information Director Filed under investigation | The PPP was developed to ease the pain of COVID-19 economic restraints on working Americans. An indictment includes text and email messages involving creating tax records for some of the companies. 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. woman indicted for preparing 110 fraudulent PPP loans. We are concerned only with actionable fraud. He added that, in selecting enforcement targets, we will follow the law, and we will not pursue companies that access CARES Act programs in good faith and in compliance with the rules.. In email and text exchanges, defendants acknowledged that a number of the companies did no legitimate business, disqualifying them from receiving the loans. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justices National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form. But the government could have implemented these safeguards from the beginning, which may have prevented significant levels of apparent fraud in the program. Many believe a high percentage of these grants were stolen, but some federal prosecutors with heavy caseloads may find it hard to justify 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). 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. | The PPP loans are forgivable under certain conditions and the loan forgiveness is not taxable income for federal tax purposes. 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. 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). Director for the Louisiana SBA District Office Michael Ricks said while that information may raise some red flags on the surface, he explained that not complying with an industrys licensing requirements does not necessarily disqualify someone from being eligible for a PPP loan. Marion State Bank. With more time, we might have been able to implement some preemptive fraud measures, but we knew there would be some fraud, said Kennedy. Not all the blame can be placed at the Small Business Administrations feet. Its up to the SBA and the Justice Department to go after anyone caught stealing PPP money. Use our searchable database to see who in Louisiana received funds. Analyzing that data for red flags is a way to identity subsets of loans and grants that warrant closer scrutiny and to help direct scarce investigative resources. Linda Miller, the deputy executive director of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, told Federal News Radio in September, 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. If it is just 5% of the combined $957 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans and Economic Injury Disaster loans and advance grants, that would still be about $48 billion in fraud. We will also begin processing paper returns downloaded from the LDR website at, The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided Economic Impact Payments of $1,200 for qualifying individuals and $2,400 for qualifying married couples, with an additional $500 per dependent child. The SBA now also conducts manual loan reviews for the largest loans in the PPP portfolio and a random sampling of other loans. Underscoring the tension between fraud prevention and disbursing assistance quickly, the added checks to verify information submitted by applicants have somewhat slowed the processing of loan applications. Nearly a dozen of those people took out two loans. Saintvils attorney declined to comment. If youre going to steal money, finite resources from people who need them, then, by God, were going to prosecute you.. The forgivable loans were meant to cover payroll for employees and, later, other eligible expenses at a time when customers werent coming in. If convicted, EVERY faces a maximum penalty of twenty (20) years, followed by a term of supervised release for up to three (3) years, a fine up to $250,000.00, or twice the gross gain to the defendant, or twice the gross loss to any victim, and a $100.00 mandatory special assessment fee, per count. GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF NORTH LOUISIANA INC. Origin Bank. That situation may arise in cases of apparent fraud involving Economic Injury Disaster loan advance grants of $10,000 or less. A borrower applied for a PPP loan from a lender or bank. Investigators say those accused made false statements about things like how many people they employ, their average monthly revenue, and payroll figures. In January, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of California obtained the first settlement in a Paycheck Protection Program civil enforcement case, against an online retailer called SlideBelts Inc. As of this month, weve seized over $580 million from over 23,000 fraudulent EIDL loans.. They allegedly exploited a program designed to provide vital funding for small businesses that are legitimately struggling in the midst of the pandemic. In remarks before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an influential business lobbying group, last June before the SBA released partial data identifying Paycheck Protection Program recipients of loans above $150,000, then-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ethan P. Davis said that with the administrations decision to release that information, some have predicted more qui tams as a result., Davis then said, Let me be clear. 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. BATON ROUGE, La. For much of 2020, the agency also issued grants of up to $10,000 under the program that do not have to be repaid by eligible recipients. Two of the companies, Symbiont Retailers and Horizon Enterprises, were not in good standing before the Paycheck Protection Program began. Find out how you can get involved and stay up to date with our work. They often involve obtaining and then piecing together often-complex financial, payroll, and tax records for individuals and companies, and sifting through other evidence. Rabbitt noted the unparalleled speed with which these cases have been investigated and prosecuted.. But even with an allegedly corrupt insider, a loan system with adequate checks should have prevented Greenbergs loans from being approved. Have a question about Government Services? 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. However, industry insiders say the barbershop industry is largely cash-based, making it easy to operate under the radar. But, in contrast to the False Claims Act where the reward is a minimum 10% of the recovery, FIRREAs whistleblower reward is capped at $1.6 million. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of hundreds of billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the SBAs PPP. Report it to the Small Business Administrations with just a few clicks. BATON ROUGE, La. Babysitter arrested after 5-year-old fatally shot by 6-year-old cousin. 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. Another large identity theft case led to charges against Jeremie Saintvil of Delray Beach, Florida in March. are moving. If Congress amends the underutilized Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, efforts by inspectors general to fight fraud in pandemic related spending would be enhanced, according to Horowitzs testimony. EVERY prepared and submitted false and fraudulent PPP sole proprietor loan applications via various online portals including, but not limited, to Blueacorn. The Small Business Administration has sent 1.34 million referrals related to Economic Injury Disaster loans to its office of inspector general, which is tackling these and Paycheck Protection Program fraud cases in coordination with a host of other law enforcement agencies. The Small Business Administrations Office of Inspector General found a significant gap in the agencys data on underserved markets, such as ethnicity, veteran status, and women-owned businesses. & Even if the Justice Department declines to join a case, the whistleblower and their private counsel can continue to pursue it. Many Paycheck Protection Program loans appear to have been issued to recipients who were not eligible under the programs rules. 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. Click here to report information on Amazon warehouses. The number of potentially questionable loans approved through these programs is vast, as will be the task of determining how many of those loans were fraudulent or otherwise improper. judy norton children; court ordered community service california EVERY created all of the false and fraudulent invoices, bank statements, and Schedule Cs. Buried within the court filing are allegations that Greenberg bribed an unnamed Small Business Administration insider to fraudulently obtain nearly $433,000 in Economic Injury Disaster loans. AGs Office announces more than 50 arrests connected to Paycheck Protection Program fraud. The charges contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Former La. Louisiana has a total of 217,332 businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the Small Business Administration. If convicted, EVERY faces a maximum penalty of twenty (20) years, followed by a term of supervised release for up to three (3) years, a fine up to $250,000.00, or twice the gross gain to the defendant, or twice the gross loss to any victim, and a $100.00 mandatory special assessment fee, per count. First Home Bank approved the $8.4 million loan, among the less than 0.1% of Paycheck Protection Program loans this large or larger (the maximum is $10 million). Act 12 of the 2020 First Extraordinary Session of the Louisiana Legislature provided for a one-time $250 rebate for eligible workers earning $50,000 per year or less, who spent at least 200 hours responding to or mitigating the COVID-19 crisis from March 22, 2020, through May 14, 2020. 61000. When we receive complaints on PPP and EIDL fraud, we immediately coordinate with the Department of Justice, to see what their interest is in the case. There were additional steps that could have been undertaken that would not have significantly slowed downin our view in the oversight communitythe delivery of funds to the public, said Michael Horowitz, the Justice Departments inspector general and chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, in testimony before Congress on March 25. The Federal Trade Commission wrote in February that, Last year, we received 99,650 reports of fraud involving business or personal loans, compared with 43,920 reports in 2019, before the pandemic began. Mr. Santemore's pleaded guilty on April 27, 2022, and was sentenced on July 25, 2022 but the terms of his sentence are under seal. 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. EVERY charged $45.00 to $120.00 from the individuals she recruited to prepare and submit the fraudulent PPP application. 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 rebates, funded by the CARES Act, are subject to Louisiana state income tax. $56,095 AVERAGE PPP LOAN. The DOJ says this ill-gotten money was in many cases used to buy luxury personal items like cars, homes, vacation trips, and jewelry. Nick Schwellenbach Yet if there is sufficient evidence, the government can still seize stolen money even in the absence of criminal charges. The cases involve attempts to steal a total of more than $175 million from the program, with actual losses to the federal government totaling more than $70 million, the DOJ reports. (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. Act 12 of the 2020 First Extraordinary Session of the Louisiana Legislature provided for a one-time $250 rebate for eligible workers earning $50,000 per year or less, who spent at least 200 hours responding to or mitigating the COVID-19 crisis from March 22, 2020, through May 14, 2020. (212) 637-2600, Human Trafficking & Child Sexual Exploitation, Department of Justice Harassment Prevention Resource, Download Ngoc Manh Nguyen et al. The inspector general offices workload has increased significantly, Grossman said. The auditor found that the deficiencies were caused by an inadequate entity wide control environment.. According to the allegations contained in the Complaint[1] unsealed today in Manhattan federal court: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Between May and October 2020, financial institutions filed more than 21,000 and 20,000 suspicious activity reports (SAR) related to PPP and EIDL, respectively, according to the Government Accountability Office. NGUYEN, VICTORIA HO, and DAT HO are members of a family that owns a chain of over 15 nail salons called Victoria Nails & Spa and other companies (the Victoria Companies) in or around the New York metropolitan area, including the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Long Island. ), 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.. 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. Does something look fishy to you? Pape and Jung used more than $3600 from the fraud scheme to pay for a stay at a resort in San Antonio, Texas, according to the Justice Department. One case involves Dinesh Sah, a Dallas-area man, who obtained $17.3 million after having sought a $24.8 million loan. The disaster loan programs strongest internal control is the ability to receive directly from the IRS recent tax transcripts, wrote James Rivera, head of the SBAs Office of Disaster Assistance, last fall. Byron.Henderson@la.gov, On Friday, Feb. 12, LDR will begin accepting tax returns through, , the states free, electronic tax filing application; or through commercially available tax filing software. Normally, our agents work a contract or procurement fraud case those can take several years to investigate, Grossman said. A vast number of referrals to the Small Business Administrations (SBA) Office of Inspector General involve complaints of identity theft, particularly related to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. [1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the Complaint and the description of the Complaint set forth herein constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation. The DOJ says this ill-gotten money was in many cases used to buy luxury personal items like cars, homes, vacation trips, and jewelry. 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. This Office was one of the districts affected by the SolarWinds intrusion. 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). The payments are refundable tax credits and are not considered taxable income for federal or state tax purposes. In Louisiana, a federal grand jury recently indicted a Plaquemine woman named Lestreonia Rodrigue on fraud charges. 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. Check out bed occupancy rate of hospitals. 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. About one year after the passage of the CARES Act, $626 million in funds have already been seized or forfeited related to criminal and civil investigations of pandemic loan fraud. how to get to quezon avenue mrt station Uncovering hot babes since 1919. GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF NORTH LOUISIANA, INC. BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF NORTHWEST LOUISIANA, ROSS H DIES DDS & BENJAMIN A BEACH DDS, LLC, Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services, Other Services (except Public Administration). In July, banks filed nearly seven times the average number of suspicious activity reports. I want to thank the U.S. Attorneys Office and our law enforcement partners for their dedication and commitment to seeing justice served., FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr said: The benefits offered by the CARES Act for PPP loans were established to help small businesses survive during the pandemic. From at least in or about April 2020 through at least in or about June 2020, NGUYEN, VICTORIA HO, and DAT HO engaged in a scheme to submit online applications to at least two financial institutions for a total of over $13 million in government-guaranteed loans for the Victoria Companies through the SBAs PPP. Allegedly misrepresenting the number of employees on their payroll to obtain the funding, they deposited this money into accounts controlled solely by them. 2020 Louisiana Individual Income Tax returns and payments are due Monday, May 17, 2021. (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.) All rights reserved. Thats more than 10 times the fraud recoveries five years after the 2009 stimulus became law. Click on a company's name to see additional loan details. According to court records, Amir Aqeel and several others in the Houston area allegedly created fake tax and payroll documentation in exchange for large kickbacks for referring others into the scheme that involved 12 corporate entities. They. The CARES Act provided $600 weekly supplemental unemployment benefits for individuals out of work for reasons related to the pandemic. EVERY primarily used Cash App to receive the initial payments. Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: As alleged, these defendants conspired to rip off the SBAs COVID-relief small business loan program and financial institutions by lying about how many people they employed in their family business and how much they paid those employees. He also opened bank accounts and lines of credit at financial institutions and credit card companies in the names of his elderly victims, according to the Justice Department. BATON ROUGE, La. The PPP loan forgiveness is not subject to Louisiana state income tax. The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge. Aqeel used some of the proceeds to purchase a Lamborghini sports car, according to the Justice Department. of Loans Jobs Retained And I, I think we ought to prosecute every single one of them to the full extent of the law, said Kennedy. Your Address, Corporation Income/Franchise Extension Request. They determined that a lot of the folks that they have as subjects of their investigations in HHS OIG [for Medicare and Medicaid fraud], were also committing PPP and EIDL fraud, Grossman said. 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. For more information on the Departments response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. The Small Business Administration has released a list of businesses that have received emergency pandemic loans.. The line is staffed 24/7. (He also applied for a separate loan just days before being indicted.) Byron Henderson Loans through that program were directly processed by the Small Business Administration, while in the Paycheck Protection Program, loans were primarily processed by banks and other lenders. Pursuant to the CARES Act, the amount of PPP funds a business is eligible to receive is determined by the number of employees employed by the business and their average payroll costs. 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