Companies that are found to have misled the government about the necessity of the small business emergency loans could face penalties ranging from a loss of loan forgiveness to jail time.
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into companies that applied for emergency loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, and businesses that provided misleading information could face jail sentences, experts say.“Whenever there’s a trillion dollars out on the street that quickly, the fraudsters are going to come out of the woodwork in an attempt to get access to that money,” Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski told Bloomberg News Thursday.
Small-business owners who have applied for or received PPP funds should “definitely take it as cause for concern,” Derek Adams, a former Justice Department trial attorney, told MarketWatch. But last week the government issued further guidance saying that applicants must exhaust other avenues of liquidity that would enable them to support ongoing operations. “This suggests a more robust analysis than what a lot of folks initially anticipated,” said Adams. “Businesses should do a fresh analysis to understand if they can support this certification before May 7,” a government-set deadline for paying back loans.
Read more: Treasury gives big public companies until May 7 to return loans meant for small businessesCompanies that are found to have misled the government about the necessity of the loans could face penalties ranging from a loss of loan forgiveness to jail time. “When you’re making a certification in connection with receiving this loan, you face criminal liability” under statues that proscribe lying to government as well as mail fraud and wire fraud, Adams said.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
A Small-Business Owner Struggles to Decide Whether to Reopen“There’s too much on the line, between the people whose livelihoods are depending on this place and what the theater means to the community culturally.”
Lire la suite »
JPMorgan says its coronavirus relief loans were mostly small in amount and for tiny companiesA replenishment in the heavily criticized Paycheck Protection Program resulted in a firehose of small business lending from JPMorgan Chase, the financial institution said
Lire la suite »
Elite D.C. School, Sidwell Friends, Takes $5.2 Million Small Business LoanSidwell Friends — an elite D.C. school with alumni including the children of presidents Obama, Clinton and Nixon — received a $5.2 million Paycheck Protection Program loan. Its board said the goal was to avoid layoffs and furloughs. (wamu885)
Lire la suite »
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin calls for private schools with large endowments to return small business loans'It has come to our attention that some private schools with significant endowments have taken PPP loans,' Mnuchin wrote on Twitter, 'They should return them.'
Lire la suite »
'It's too soon': In small towns and big cities, Georgia's experiment in reopening moves slowlyA week after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp plunged Georgia into the middle of a national social experiment — rolling back restrictions on businesses in an effort to restart the economy after a monthlong shutdown to halt the spread of COVID-19 — some restaurants, salons and tattoo parlors remain…
Lire la suite »