A furniture rental company in South Jersey has settled federal allegations of fraud related to obtaining a $2 million Paycheck Protection Program loan in 2021, officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said Tuesday.
In January 2021, American Furniture Rentals in Pennsauken received a $2 million, fully forgivable Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loan after certifying the company had fewer than 300 employees when, in fact, it had more, officials said.
One year earlier, on Jan. 20, 2020, American Furniture Rentals had applied for a previous PPP loan of $10 million from the Small Business Administration under the PPP program when guidelines permitted companies with up to 500 employees to apply for the loans, authorities said.
Under the eligibility rules in 2020, some companies with more than 500 employees could qualify for PPP loans if they qualified as small under the SBA’s alternative standards, according to the settlement.
Authorities said AFR was ineligible for the $2 million loan because it had too many employees and no longer qualified under the PPP program’s guidelines.
The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by Verity Investigations under the False Claims Act’s whistleblower provision, which allows entities to receive a portion of settlements for reporting false claims.
AFR cooperated with the federal investigation and agreed to pay just over $2.9 million under the settlement, officials said.
Verity Investigations will receive $7,672 to cover...
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