CALLING ALL AMATEUR FRAUD DETECTIVES
This just came across my desk this afternoon and is perfect for those of you who are internet sleuths and love tracking down fraud like we do. A software engineer in Palo Alto, California, Brian Hamachek, developed a website, www.pppdetective.com where anyone can see what businesses received PPP loans from the government and in what amount. When Hamachek learned there was a government website listing PPP loans that had been given out, he searched and discovered that several businesses in his town of Palo Alto had actually gone out of business before Covid hit or didn't have the amount of employees they claimed to have, yet got PPP loans anyway which were ultimately forgiven. Basically "free" money for these scammers. He decided to spin up a website of his own where anyone can put in a city and state and see which businesses received PPP loans, mostly forgiven, how many employees they claimed and how big their loans were. We've tried it out and it's very eye opening. You can also flag a loan that you think may be fraudulent based on your knowledge of your particular city.
For those of you who may, or may not, know there's a federal law known as the False Claims Act, also known as a Qui tam. This allows anyone who becomes aware of a fraud committed against the federal government, such as someone receiving a PPP loan when they shouldn't have, to file a federal case on behalf of the government. If the government takes the case, pursues it, and wins an amount of money from the subject, the person who brought the case, known as the Relator, gets 15 - 30% of the recovered funds. Doesn't take long to find a few multi-million dollar PPP loan fraud cases and have some nice paydays. The only catch in filing a Qui tam is that the Relator, (namely you, you Internet Sleuth), has to have an attorney to file the case. We've worked a lot of Qui tams over the last 8 years and know which law firms are great at getting the government to intervene, i.e. take the case, and those that aren't so great. Let us know if you find a PPP loan fraud case that you think has merit and we can discuss with you the possibility of success and then put you in touch with a firm that will ensure the case gets a fair shake from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Good hunting!!!
EXCALIBUR Private Investigation
352.509.8900; 719.208.4088; 505.208.6400; 803.806.7800
Serving all of Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and South Carolina
About the author. R. Lee Walters is a retired FBI Agent with over 24 years of federal law enforcement experience. He has worked in the private investigation industry for 13+ years. Click here to learn more.
For those of you who may, or may not, know there's a federal law known as the False Claims Act, also known as a Qui tam. This allows anyone who becomes aware of a fraud committed against the federal government, such as someone receiving a PPP loan when they shouldn't have, to file a federal case on behalf of the government. If the government takes the case, pursues it, and wins an amount of money from the subject, the person who brought the case, known as the Relator, gets 15 - 30% of the recovered funds. Doesn't take long to find a few multi-million dollar PPP loan fraud cases and have some nice paydays. The only catch in filing a Qui tam is that the Relator, (namely you, you Internet Sleuth), has to have an attorney to file the case. We've worked a lot of Qui tams over the last 8 years and know which law firms are great at getting the government to intervene, i.e. take the case, and those that aren't so great. Let us know if you find a PPP loan fraud case that you think has merit and we can discuss with you the possibility of success and then put you in touch with a firm that will ensure the case gets a fair shake from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Good hunting!!!
EXCALIBUR Private Investigation
352.509.8900; 719.208.4088; 505.208.6400; 803.806.7800
Serving all of Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and South Carolina
About the author. R. Lee Walters is a retired FBI Agent with over 24 years of federal law enforcement experience. He has worked in the private investigation industry for 13+ years. Click here to learn more.
RSS Feed
