S.B.A. Overpaid $4.5 Billion on ‘Illogical’ Small Business Grant Claims

A program gave money to 700,000 self-employed people who improperly claimed to have as many as a million employees, according to an inspector general’s report.

The agency also ran the Paycheck Protection Program, which gave out $800 billion in bank-issued loans but often left lenders and borrowers scrambling to comply with confusing and shifting rules. Fraud was a problem there, too: Tens of billions of dollars may have been taken improperly.

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The loan advance grants were created by Congress in March 2020 as part of its first coronavirus aid package. Intended to quickly get money to devastated companies, the program offered grants to businesses that applied for a disaster loan — and allowed applicants to keep the money even if their loan request was rejected.

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Some of the claims were outright absurd. Hundreds of applicants received the maximum grants after saying that they employed more than 500 workers, a number that would generally make them ineligible for the small business program. Fifteen said they had one million employees — a figure that would put them in league with Amazon and Walmart.

Gimme, gimme, gimme. What a country. The Selfish States of America.