The United States misplaced greater than $200 billion to fraud from two schemes designed to assist small companies by the Covid-19 pandemic, in keeping with a US authorities watchdog report.
“We identified multiple schemes used by fraudsters to steal from the American taxpayer and exploit programs meant to help those in need,” the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) mentioned in a brand new report.
The doubtlessly fraudulent loans have been disbursed by two Covid-19 packages, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), in keeping with the report printed on Tuesday.
“Over $200 billion in potentially fraudulent Covid-19 EIDLs, EIDL Targeted Advances, Supplemental Targeted Advances, and PPP loans,” the SBA report mentioned.
“This means at least 17 percent of all COVID-19 EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors,” in keeping with the SBA.
The US authorities offered round $4.6 trillion of funding for pandemic response and restoration, in keeping with a current estimate by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Of this, round $90.5 billion in funding remained unspent as of January 2023, in keeping with the GAO.
The OIG’s oversight and investigative work resulted in additional than 1,000 indictments, and 529 convictions associated to Covid fraud, in keeping with the SBA.
These investigations have resulted in “nearly $30 billion in Covid-19 EIDL and PPP funds being seized or returned to SBA,” the report discovered.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
