Reprinted with permission from Birmingham Medical News (April 2023).
Fraud enforcement actions by the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) continue to rise against companies and individuals related to their applications for and receipt of COVID-19 benefits. It appears that no type of entity is exempt from these enforcement actions. For example, as recently as March 21, 2023 the USDOJ announced a settlement with two Florida companies, Kingwood Orlando Reunion Resort LLC (Orlando Reunion) and Kingwood Crystal River Resort Corp. (Crystal River). Orlando and Crystal River agreed to pay $325,000 to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) by providing false information in support of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness application submitted by Crystal River.
Orlando Reunion and Crystal River, which are related but operate separate resorts, both received separate PPP loans. The United States alleged that Crystal River sought forgiveness of its PPP loan, in-part, by certifying that it used a portion of its PPP loan to pay wages of Crystal River employees, when in fact, some of the employees to whom it claimed to have paid wages were actually Orlando Reunion employees whom Crystal River did not employ or pay. As a part of the settlement, Crystal River and Orlando Reunion agreed to pay $271,720 in damages under the FCA and $53,280 in civil monetary...
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