Federal Reports

Ever since Congress created the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA), SIGTARP has delivered for American taxpayers. As a law enforcement office, SIGTARP has a proven record of identifying and investigating fraud and other crime. SIGTARP investigations have resulted in the recovery of at least $11.3 billion, criminal prosecutions by the Department of Justice and others of 469 defendants—321 of them sentenced to prison, including 75 bankers. Our investigations have also resulted in enforcement actions against 25 corporations/entities, including enforcement actions against many of the largest U.S. financial institutions. As an independent watchdog, SIGTARP has consistently identified fraud, waste, abuse, ineffectiveness, inefficiency, and risk in EESA programs, and brought transparency to EESA.

The PRAC’s Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE) data scientists identified $5.4 Billion in potential identity fraud associated with over 69,000 questionable Social Security Numbers (SSNs) used on applications across disbursed loans in the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and Paycheck Protection Program. Through collaborative verification methods with the Social Security Administration, we identified that these SSNs were used in connection with over 99,000 applications and warrant further scrutiny. The results of this Fraud Alert demonstrate the benefit of a consent-based verification process to authenticate basic applicant information. This leading practice can be facilitated by legislative language requiring federal agencies to use a such a process when making applicant eligibility determinations and by authorizing agencies such as SSA to verify information.

An Amtrak trainmaster based in New Orleans, Louisiana, was terminated from employment on January 27, 2023, after our investigation found that the employee violated company policies by intentionally submitting an application containing false statements and information to the Small Business Administration in order to qualify for a CARES Act Economic Injury Disaster Loan for a business that does not exist. Additionally, when interviewed by our agents, the employee failed to be forthright, honest, or cooperative. We also found that the employee violated company policy by not disclosing any outside business activities on his certificates of compliance.