The government has been actively investigating and prosecuting Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP” or the “Program”) fraud ever since the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) rolled out the Program in the Spring of 2020 to provide SBA-backed loans to help eligible businesses maintain their workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic. At first the government’s efforts focused on cases of obvious fraud, resulting in criminal charges. The criminal prosecutions continue to this day, with a Florida man recently convicted of unlawfully using PPP loans for a 4.02 carat engagement ring, a Louisiana woman charged with fraudulently preparing over 100 PPP applications, and eight conspirators charged with obtaining over $7mm in PPP loans for alleged defunct companies. But as highlighted on Dorsey & Whitney’s False Claims Act Case Tracker for PPP Fraud, the communications between borrowers, lenders, and the government to secure government loans necessarily created civil liability, too, under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). Civil cases alleging PPP fraud under the FCA, in fact, are now just as ubiquitous as the criminal cases that grabbed headlines early on in the pandemic. Until recently, however, the FCA cases only targeted borrowers allegedly engaged in PPP fraud. But not anymore.
Last week, the DOJ announced the “first-ever” FCA settlement with a PPP lender. Under the settlement, Prosperity Bank, a regional bank with branches throughout Texas and Oklahoma, agreed to pay $18,673.50 to...
News The Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA) has corrected the false claims it made about its financial affairs in a statement published on 31 March. These false claims were first documented b...