{"id":6370,"date":"2021-12-18T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6370"},"modified":"2021-12-16T16:55:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T21:55:46","slug":"u-s-gave-3-7-billion-in-relief-to-likely-ineligible-businesses-auditor-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6370","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Gave $3.7 Billion in Relief to Likely Ineligible Businesses, Auditor Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A rushed emergency aid program for small businesses affected by the pandemic improperly sent nearly $3.7 billion to recipients prohibited from receiving federal funds, according to a government audit. The Small Business Administration\u2019s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program distributed more than $210 billion in loans and grants last year in a hurried attempt by the Trump administration to help companies keep up on their bills as the coronavirus led to shut downs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The agency failed to do a legally required check of applicants\u2019 identifying details against the Treasury Department\u2019s Do Not Pay system. This system was set up in 2011 to reduce improper payments to people who are dead, convicted of tax fraud or barred from receiving federal contracts, among other red flags. The SBA\u2019s inspector general, Hannibal Ware, found 117,135 applicants who got grants and 75,180 recipients who got loans showed matches in the system indicating a \u201chigh likelihood\u201d that the payments were improper. Isabella Casillas Guzman, who became the agency\u2019s administrator in March, has said that she heightened the SBA\u2019s fraud controls over its COVID-19 relief programs. It was only in April of 2021 that the SBA began checking Do Not Pay records before sending out funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/fraud.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/fraud.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6353\" width=\"175\" height=\"129\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>If you&#8217;re struggling financially and would like to know more about your options, call us at 816-524-4949 or visit our <a href=\"http:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\">website <\/a>to schedule a consultation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rushed emergency aid program for small businesses affected by the pandemic improperly sent nearly $3.7 billion to recipients prohibited from receiving federal funds, according to a government audit. The Small Business Administration\u2019s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program distributed more &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6370\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1136,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fraud","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6371,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions\/6371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}