Fraud – Continuing To Pull Back The Curtain On Federal Relief Abuses

On August 31, 2021, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) released its report detailing various accounts of fraud and administrative oversight in the administration of federal COVID-19 relief funds. The report, entitled "Lessons Learned in Oversight of Pandemic Relief Funds," details an independent review of the $5 trillion in federal relief funds provided since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As has been detailed in our previous articles, many individuals and businesses both knowingly and unknowingly did not accurately receive and/or use federal relief funds such as loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Though the government is continuing to retrospectively scrutinize who received federal aid and how that aid was used, there have been obvious abuses of the system.