January 29, 2021 | less than a minute read

2021 Likely to See a Wave of DOJ-led PPP Fraud Prosecutions

Taylor English

David Bouchard hit the nail on the head with his latest article regarding his predictions for a surge in PPP fraud prosecutions in 2021.

"The unprecedented, historic nature of the program makes it difficult to predict how the DOJ will allocate prosecutorial resources and which cases it will prioritize in the future.

But over time, federal prosecutors will almost certainly turn their eyes to more complicated fraud schemes, including legitimate small businesses' use of PPP loans on unauthorized expenses that are difficult to detect, loan recipients' misrepresentation of their eligibility for the program in nonobvious ways, and employers' exploitation of the program over the long run by, for example, asking their employees to repay compensation received under a PPP loan or to work for free."

In December, the DOJ announced that since the inception of the program it had secured charges of PPP fraud against more than 90 individuals in cases involving alleged losses totaling more than $250 million.[4] By all indications, the DOJ plans to continue prioritizing PPP fraud prosecutions in 2021 and beyond.[5]