The $800B relief program has been plagued by fraud. See how we're fighting back.
Oklahoma woman pleads guilty to trying to steal $43.8M in PPP funds in one of the largest fraud cases yet
She lied on her applications—falsifying employees, payroll expenses, and federal tax records—and almost got away with stealing $32.5 million. She’s facing up to three decades in prison instead.
Owner of California pothole repair company used a fraudulent $7M PPP loan to buy a $113,000 luxury car
He claimed the money would be used to keep workers and maintain payroll. But he spent hundreds of thousands on a computer, a Mercedes-Benz, and a down payment on a business in another state and overseas. Now he’s facing up to 20 years in prison.
The PPP used 5,000 lenders to get the money out. One lender just got arrested for fraud and another is being investigated
by Congress.
You may have seen these lenders in NBC News' The Fleecing of America series. Here’s what we know about them.
MBE Capital and BlueVine Capital are FinTechs, financial technology companies that use automated online platforms to connect borrowers with banks. Based on reports linking FinTechs to a large number of fraudulent PPP loans, in May 2021, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis opened an investigation into four Fintech lenders and bank partners.
While BlueVine was technically added as a new PPP lender, our data shows they only originated six PPP loans for $29,000. Instead, BlueVine acted mostly as an online loan processor or lender service provider, helping borrowers complete PPP applications and then sending them to other lenders, like Celtic Bank. In that capacity, BlueVine helped process 155,000 PPP applications for $4.5 billion, according to its website. However, there is no public data available on PPP loan processors or lender service providers, so it’s difficult to know the extent of their involvement in the program.
Unlike BlueVine, MBE Capital processed PPP loans themselves. According to our data, MBE Capital approved 36,400 loans worth $822 million.
In March 2022, the CEO of the company was arrested after federal law enforcement officials found probable cause to believe that he lied about the number of employees and monthly payroll his company had to get a $284,000 PPP loan (which was applied for under the name Republic Group Parts Limited Liability, a holding company for MBE Capital). Less than a week later, it is alleged that he submitted more fake documents, this time to get approved by the SBA to be a non-bank PPP lender. By becoming a PPP lender, MBE Capital was able to earn more than $70 million in lender fees.
Didn't catch us on NBC or NPR talking about how we find PPP fraudsters?
We can't do this alone.
We also need your help to find fraud.
That's one of the reasons we put all pandemic relief data on our website - if you find a red flag, you can send us a tip through our hotline.
We recently added even more data about other programs run by the Small Business Administration, like the $28.5 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund and the $14 billion Shuttered Venues Operator Grant program.
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