Western, Eastern, and Northern Districts of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Offices collaborated with the DOJ’s Fraud Division in the effort to investigate COVID relief loan fraud.
Texas participated in a joint-effort national enforcement surge that found over $245 million stolen in COVID-era loans intended for small businesses.
The national takedown surge, dubbed “Operation No Doze,” revealed that over $245 million in COVID-era loans had been obtained through false claims to Small Business Administration’s COVID-era programs.
The COVID-era programs were the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan. The PPP offered services such as forgivable loans intended for payroll until May 2021. The Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) provided loans and advances and stopped accepting new applicants in May 2022.
However, fraudulent claims abounded nationwide. Forty U.S. Attorney’s Offices, including three from Texas, collaborated with twenty federal and state investigative agencies in Operation No Doze.
“Six years after our first PPP fraud case was charged in Austin, we are still finding fraudsters and holding them accountable for their greed-driven schemes that undermined a federal program and stole from American taxpayers in the midst of the chaos that was the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas. “This surge, led by the National Fraud Enforcement Division, highlights our commitment to protecting the...
Western, Eastern, and Northern Districts of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Offices collaborated with the DOJ’s Fraud Division in the effort to investigate COVID relief loan fraud. Texas participated in a jo...