US investigates possible financial fraud in aid of Covid-19

Washington, Nov 23 (Prensa Latina) A subcommittee of the United States Congress that investigates financial fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic today expanded the scope of its probe to include two of the main processors of this aid.

November 23, 2021
14:12

Rep. James Clyburn (D-South Carolina), who chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, called for the investigation into fraud in the Check Protection Program (PPP) to be extended to two online businesses that processed a third of all loans this year.

The entities involved are Blue Acorn PPP, LLC and Womply Inc, which together surpassed the totals of any of their direct competitors by entering more than three billion dollars in commissions since Covid-19 began to spread in the country last year, USA Today reported.

“I am deeply concerned by reports alleging that financial technology (FinTech) lenders and their banking partners did not adequately screen PPP loan applications to prevent fraud,” Clyburn said in a letter to each company.

This failure -he stressed- may have led to millions of dollars of PPP loans facilitated by FinTech to fraudulent, non-existent or otherwise ineligible companies.

Before the pandemic, Womply never provided loans and Blue Acorn did not exist.

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