COVID-19 Fraud Charges? A PPP Loan and Bank Fraud Attorney Can Help

United States federal authorities aggressively target people and businesses for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and banking fraud.

Introduced in March 2020 in response to the financial unpredictability of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the PPP offered hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to struggling businesses. Loans provided under the PPP carry a 1% interest rate with the option for forgiveness if specific conditions are satisfied.

The low-cost and possibly free funds provided under the PPP have proven to appeal to struggling businesses, larger corporations, and scam artists, leading to mounting concerns of widespread fraud. As a result, several federal agencies have turned their attention toward identifying and prosecuting PPP loan fraud.

What Is Bank Fraud in Law?

Bank fraud is a federal crime when someone uses unlawful means to obtain funds from a bank. Individuals or businesses may be charged with bank fraud if they use false information to obtain PPP funds or other bank loans and accounts.

Bank fraud can include identity theft, a fraudulent loan application, creating false financial statements, opening a false bank account, misusing bank account information, or other fraudulent activities that result in the theft of money from a bank.

If you have been charged with fraud related to PPP loans, you must contact an experienced bank fraud attorney as soon as possible.

Our SBA Bank Fraud Lawyers Can Help

Currently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) are all actively investigating businesses for PPP loan fraud.

These investigations can lead to a range of federal charges. Business owners, business executives, and others face excessive fines and the possibility of years of federal prison time after being accused of PPP loan fraud, bank fraud, and/or/or SBA fraud.

Federal financial fraud charges should not be taken lightly. If you or your business are under investigation for prospective fraud under the PPP loan or have been charged with bank fraud, you must work with a skilled bank fraud attorney at Conoscienti & Ledbetter.

Our SBA fraud lawyers have extensive experience defending business owners against state and federal bank fraud cases, and we are currently working with clients facing various pandemic-related legal issues.

Around the time the initial deadline for PPP loan applications ended, FBI officials in Washington, DC, openly stated that they had already opened hundreds of PPP fraud investigations, and dozens of prosecutions were already underway.

With hundreds of billions of federal funds dispersed through the PPP program to millions of businesses, this will likely be an active investigation area for quite some time. While this can be a major cause for concern for many business owners, numerous defense options may be available with the help of a seasoned PPP fraud lawyer.

The first possible fraud defense is what’s known as a “good-faith” defense. Fraud convictions require evidence that the defendant had an intent to commit fraud. Hence, if you received a larger PPP loan than you were qualified for due to a genuine error, you most likely would not be guilty of fraud.

Another defense particularly applicable to fraud is “materiality.” In any fraud case, the prosecution must be able to prove that the supposed fraud was “material,” meaning that the deceptive conduct would impact the decision-making of a reasonable individual. Therefore, inflating your payroll by a few hundred dollars is not likely to be “material” to the overall eligibility of a PPP loan since a few hundred dollars is an extremely small portion of a PPP loan.

There are much more possible PPP loan and bank fraud defenses, but the exact ones available to you depend on your situation’s specific facts and circumstances. Suppose you are under investigation or have been charged with pandemic-related white-collar crime offenses. In that case, an expert business lawyer in Atlanta can recognize and apply these possible defenses.