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US Lenders Brace for Reckoning Over Fraudulent COVID-19 Loans

By Fred Williams

U.S. financial institutions that administered pandemic-related aid on behalf of the federal government in 2020 and 2021 may face penalties for having failed to report potentially fraudulent loan applications in a timely manner, analysts told ACAMS moneylaundering.com. Under the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, and the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans program, nearly 5,500 banks and other institutions disbursed more than $1 trillion for the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, from March 2020 to May 2021 to help businesses weather the impact of mandatory lockdowns and other restrictions during the pandemic. But criminals also targeted the programs on an...

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