A federal watchdog revealed that tens of billions of dollars in COVID-19 aid over the years might have been stolen via two large, Congress-passed relief programs.
The federal U.S. Small Business Administration inspector general, in figures released Tuesday (pdf), show fraud that was much greater than previously forecast. It found that the most significant amounts of cash were stolen via the Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs.
The inspector general’s report stated that “at least 17 percent of all COVID-EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors,” referring to the programs. The fraud estimate for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is more than $136 billion, which represents 33 percent of the total money spent on that program, according to the report. The Paycheck Protection fraud estimate is $64 billion, the inspector general said….