The Justice Department has charged 57 people since May with trying to steal more than $175 million from the Paycheck Protection Program designed to help Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, a department official said on Thursday.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Rabbitt said on Thursday that coordinated criminal rings have worked to defraud the program.
'The involvement of these rings isn't surprising, but it is particularly troubling to us here at the department, we will be focusing on these types of cases, going forward,' he said at a news conference.
Investigators say that some of those involved in the scams flaunted the ill-gotten funds, using them to buy exotic cars and expensive homes.
The PPP is a $669 billion business loan program established to help small businesses keep paying their staff and meet business expenses during lockdowns in the coronavirus pandemic.
Though many small businesses praise the program, saying it kept them from going under, there have been multiple allegations of abuse, with some borrowers splashing out the bailout funds on luxury lifestyles.
Rabbitt said that the more than 50 suspects arrested on fraud charges had tried to access more than $175 million in PPP funds, and successfully received more than $70 million.
'Through our swift efforts to date, we have been able to recover or freeze more than $30 million in PPP funds,' Rabbitt said. He said that number would grow as the feds liquidated assets purchased with stolen funds.
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