The new Covid-19 aid plan for small businesses that President Trump signed this week does not address some of the weaknesses in the initial stimulus legislation that allowed companies with a checkered history to get billions of dollars in payments.
The $ 900 billion pandemic bill includes an additional $ 284 billion for the Small Business Wage Protection Program. Under the previous stimulus, 5.2 million small businesses borrowed $ 525 billion in forgivable loans.
Nearly 1,500 companies that received about $ 2 billion in PPP loans have been charged with violating government regulations or criminal conduct, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of loan recipients and news sources.
Another 432 firms laid off workers after being approved for nearly $ 1 billion in loans, according to an analysis of national layoffs submitted largely by large companies to Good Jobs First, a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC , which promotes corporate and governmental responsibility.
The government has accused dozens of people in at least 36 complaints of fraudulently obtaining coronavirus bailouts, many for allegedly falsifying PPP loan applications and embezzling funds, according to a Justice Department data journal.