Federal authorities have only begun to scratch the surface in holding fraudsters responsible for stealing more than $200 billion through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs.
Here in the Chicago area, people from all walks of life — teachers, police officers, government workers and Cook County jail inmates — have been caught and many others accused of securing PPP loans mostly through applications rife with lies. And while not all of them have been criminally charged, they have faced repercussions.
One category of swindlers, however, has mostly evaded punishment for scamming the program designed to help small businesses pull through during the pandemic, as the Sun-Times’ Frank Main recently reported. These unofficial brokers enticed others to join in the con and received kickbacks for helping fill out the applications. But many people who used these shady go-betweens appear to be hesitant in giving them up, which can prolong investigations.
Time for them to come clean.
At the Illinois Department of Human Services, 10 out of 12 workers busted for such activities revealed that someone else had filled out PPP loan applications for them. And half of them admitted paying a broker a kickback, Main reported. All of those workers, who collectively received $275,000 in PPP loans, have since been fired.
Another woman, a Chicago Housing Authority resident, said she made a deal with a broker to split the $42,000 she received in 2020 and 2021 after the person helped her with the paperwork to get the loans. That woman’s housing rent subsidy voucher was revoked, although she did end up getting it back late last month when the Illinois Appellate Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.
The woman admitted she did not own a small business, so not everyone will buy that she was an “unwilling victim” duped into thinking she was applying for a grant when she connected with the broker on Facebook. In the end, she did have to answer to what she calls “unintentional mistakes.” The broker she hired, meanwhile, remains scot-free, and that is likely because the woman hasn’t given a name.
Of the dozen IDHS workers investigated for PPP fraud, only three identified who assisted them with their false claims.
Investigators cannot turn a blind eye to these brokers, but they can’t hold the scammers accountable for their actions if their cohorts stay quiet.
People who have paid a price for engaging in PPP fraud owe it to their fellow citizens to speak up if they had help. Otherwise, they’ll just come across as covering for key players for one of the biggest financial scams in this country’s history.
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