Last year, the inspector general for the SBA, which oversaw PPP and Economic Injury Disaster loans, estimated that at least 17% of the $1.2 trillion given out by those programs was obtained through fraud.
In the federal prison system, at least one-quarter of a billion dollars in fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits went to inmates across the country, according to a government estimate.
In Chicago, hundreds of public employees are among those suspected of pandemic relief fraud, but few have faced criminal charges. One exception saw two Chicago cops charged in a federal indictment with stealing more than $2 million in PPP money. One of the officers retired two weeks before he was charged last year.
Theft via government...
