Anti-Israel Fake ‘Jewish Voice For Peace’ to Repay $677K For Cheating On PPP Loan
Will the IRS now move to revoke JVP’s charitiable status?
The nonprofit organization “Jewish Voice for Peace” is neither pro-Israel nor an advocate for peace. Rather, it is an anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian group founded by several undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996. It is currently based in Washington, D.C. We have covered JVP’s malicious conduct in over 100 posts since 2011.
According to JVP’s website, they are “organizing a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality, and dignity for all people.” The site tells prospective members that, if they’ve “been looking for a political home for Jews on the left in this perilous moment; if you’ve been wanting a Jewish community with justice at the center; if you’ve been looking to turn your rage and grief into meaningful, strategic action: Join us. You belong here.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced that JVP had agreed to pay $677,634 to settle fraud allegations arising from a $338,817 forgivable loan obtained under the Covid-era Paycheck Protection Act Program, which was part of the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
The CARES Act was “created to provide emergency financial support to Americans suffering economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. … [It] authorized billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses and other entities, including non-profit organizations, struggling to pay employees and other business expenses.”
According to the news release, JVP’s loan was brought to the Department of Justice’s attention when another public interest group, TZAC, filed a whistleblower complaint. The following federal investigation revealed that JVP was not eligible to participate in the program. The group had violated the False Claims Act, which stipulated:
A business concern or other entity, including a nonprofit organization, is not eligible to receive a second draw loan if it is primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities, which shall include any entity that is organized for research or for engaging in advocacy in areas such as public policy or political strategy or otherwise describes itself as a think tank in any public document.
JVP had misrepresented the nature of the organization to its lender and the Small Business Administration in the original loan application and again when it further applied for and was granted forgiveness of the entire loan amount.
When an investigation found that JVP was primarily engaged in political activities, JVP maintained that “any misstatements in this application were inadvertent” as opposed to being knowingly fraudulent. Because the government was not able to prove the claims were made willfully, JVP was only ordered to pay back double the original loan amount – $677,634 – to settle the allegations.
Had the misstatements been confirmed to be deliberate, under the False Claims Act, JVP would have been forced to pay back triple the original loan amount – or $1,016,451, as well as “lost interest, along with civil penalties for each false certification made in the loan application and forgiveness application.”
Following the settlement, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves issued a statement that read:
The Paycheck Protection Act Program existed to help businesses survive a devastating global pandemic. When business owners unfairly drain those funds – either by not reading the eligibility requirements or disregarding them – they put the entire program at risk. In the end, those who are harmed are the businesses that actually qualified for and needed the money, and the taxpayers who funded the program.
The announcement carefully notes that “the claims resolved by the civil settlement are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability in the civil case.”
It is undoubtedly good news that the government recovered this money. But this loan should never have been made and the fact that it was raises an important question: how many other PPP loans were granted to organizations that “misrepresented” their nature during the pandemic to obtain a handout?
How difficult would it have been for program administrators to identify that JVP was a political group and thus ineligible for government funding? I was able to find that information through a simple Google search.
Will the IRS now move to revoke JVP’s charitiable status?
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Prison time for those who defrauded the government would be nice.
Definitely needs to happen. Then permanently bar these.organizations from any direct or indirect gov’t funding, ability to bid for govt contracts and favorable tax status. Same for the individuals who did it, those in that org who failed to monitor it stop it AND any organization which chooses to employ them or even allows them to work as an unpaid intern or non salaried volunteer. IOW they get put on the naughty list and if you choose to associate your org with them so does your org.
JVP: ‘any misstatements in this application were inadvertent’
DOJ: ‘are you sure you didn’t deliberately lie to defraud taxpayers out of $677K?’
JVP: ‘we didn’t lie’
DOJ: ‘well hecky doodle. No crime here!’
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Interesting that this should happen mere days before Trump is sworn in. I doubt they would have received as favorable a deal under Trump’s DOJ.
Time to wipe out the 501 c3 tax exemption.
Law should read that any remaining tax exemp orgs needs to pay out 90% of their intake to the charity it’s purporting to represent every year. No hanging onto a bunch of money for a rainy day.
As it stands now it’s just a tax haven for the rich radicals and a highly paid job with fantastic benefits for most of those involved in their 501 c3 from what I can see.
Nah, I’d never go along with that. There’s a crapload of 501(c)(3)s out there who have nothing to do with politics, and are doing yeoman’s work in education, science, private social aid, and health,
In my own experience, the 501(c)(3)s who DO begin engaging in political lobbying… it is invariably a reaction to government mission creep — new regulations encroaching on their group’s private mission. And all they want from the government is to be left alone to continue to do their charity,
The SPLC with it’s millions stashed in the Cayman Islands will lean heavily on Democrats to make sure that will never happen.
I also don’t believe that most of JVP’s members, and certainly its leaders, are actually Jews. I think many or most of them are as Jewish as Rachael Dolezal is black, or Elizabeth Warren Indian, and only claim to be Jewish in order to gain “moral authority” for their antisemitic opinions.
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