‘Biggest fraud in a generation’

[BeyondThunderdome]

‘Biggest fraud in a generation’: The looting of the Covid relief plan known as PPP:

No one is sure exactly how much was stolen. An academic paper released last year estimated at least $76 billion in potential fraud, and the authors said that was conservative.

 

This of course was foreseeable:

Trump removes watchdog tapped for $2T virus rescue oversight:

Trump’s latest move threatens to upend the rigorous oversight that Democrats in Congress demanded for the huge sums of money being pumped into the American economy because of the virus….

“I’ll be the oversight,” Trump declared as lawmakers were finalizing the rescue plan.

 

NO MALARKEY

[Legend]

Ppp recipient here.

Not at all shocking there was fraud and a lot of it. Easy money.

That said, the oversight wasn’t likely the issue, so I don’t get the trump bashing. The issue was the statute was written to get money flowing right away. And it did so.

I can tell you that I used the money to hire, since business was impacted but not imperiled, and those hires have ultimately been good. I like to think it did what it was supposed to in my case.

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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

[BeyondThunderdome]

I am not against the program and I’m glad it helped you. But let’s not pretend more oversight would have been a good thing.

NO MALARKEY

[Mick]

The $11.4 billion California unemployment benefits fraud during the pandemic, presided over by Julie Su (Dept of Labor Secretary nominee) involved foreign cybercriminals.  That was fairly impressive.

[cardcrimson]

And I thought this was going to be a thread about Will Smith.

[rogpodge]

Fiscal policy has always been prone to fraud. Large pools of other people’s money? What could go wrong?

That being said, there were some praiseworthy private efforts during the pandemic. The 30 day Virginia fund, created by Pete Snyder, and the Barstool Fund (modeled after the Virginia Fund) both raised money and distributed money to save small businesses during the pandemic. (Full disclosure, I donated to the Barstool Fund). Americans not only want to help, but we know how to help in effective ways. Government solutions aren’t always the best ones.

[Beeg_Dawg]

How about proper rather than more oversight?  Like a simple requirement to check for a business license before loan approval?

Banks, credit unions, etc were given little time or direction, except to process loans as quickly as possible.  Golfing buddy is VP of a local credit union.  He described the program as the mother of all cluster f*cks.

[Author]

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