Oh, look! More fraud is involved in the government’s COVID Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Who would have thunk?
Illinois’ state executive inspector general’s office discovered that almost 375 government workers committed fraud related to the PPP.
The investigation started in 2022. From The Chicago Sun-Times:
Susan Haling, the executive inspector general, began the investigation in 2022. Her office investigates wrongdoing involving state workers and employees of some local government agencies, including the CTA and PACE.The agency said Friday that it has found 373 people — out of 501 cases it has investigated involving suspected PPP fraud — engaged in some type of wrongdoing.Investigations involving 54 workers were closed in the year that ended June 30, state records show. Those cases involved about $1.19 million in suspicious PPP loans, according to the state agency. Two of those 54 employees ended up being fired. The rest resigned.About half of them admitted they had paid an underground broker to submit falsified loan applications on their behalf in exchange for kickbacks that ranged from $500 to $10,000.A CTA bus driver told investigators he met his broker in a bowling league and paid him $10,000 to get $41,666 in shady loans, according to the state report. Other workers said they used tax preparers to fill out phony PPP applications.
Insanity.
A bus driver used $20,000 in loans to repaint her house and redo her floors.
Another employee used the loan to buy an SUV.
A few lied about having salons:
Some of the cases were very similar in nature. An Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services Office coordinator obtained a $20,832 loan for a beauty shop that purportedly earned $100,000 in income. In her interview, the employee admitted she never owned a beauty shop.A DHS Mental Health Technician obtained a $20,832 loan for a beauty salon that had supposedly earned $104,807 in income in 2019. In reality, the business did not exist and was only a business on paper.
This isn’t over yet.
Deborah Witzburg, Chicago’s inspector general, has “20 long-term investigations into suspected PPP fraud involving city employees that remain open.”
I mean, this number is small compared to the national numbers.
But still, not shocked that so many Illinois government employees took part in the fraud.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY