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Real Clear Wire: Waste of the Day: Illinois Investigating State Employees For $4.5 Million In PPP Fraud

  |   By Polling+ Staff

Looking up at the exterior of the Appellate Court of the State of Illinois District Building in Springfield, Illinois, USA. The American flag and the State of Illinois flag fly at the perimeter of view. The sign for the building is in the forefront of view. Captured on a winter afternoon.

Not for nothing the old adage to “follow the money.”

Real Clear Wire did that in, of all places, Illinois. The headline: https://realclearwire.com/articles/2023/11/07/waste_of_the_day_illinois_investigating_state_employees_for_45_million_in_ppp_fraud_990282.html

Waste of the Day: Illinois Investigating State Employees For $4.5 Million In PPP Fraud

The story reports:

“The Illinois Office of Executive Inspector General has referred 177 state employees to law enforcement agencies, alleging at least $4.5 million in fraudulently obtained Paycheck Protection Program loans, according to a recent report.

The PPP from the Small Business Administration was one of the most fraudulent programs in the history of federal programs, with an estimated $200 billion in fraudulent loans. 

The Illinois IG launched an investigation into state employees to determine if any had defrauded the federal government’s PPP. It initiated 438 investigations into employees receiving over $20,000 in PPP loans, and out of the 204 investigations it completed, 177 of them have been referred to law enforcement, or about 87% of concluded investigations.

These referrals were predicated on, “reasonable cause to believe that a State employee violated the State of Illinois Code of Personal Conduct and/or agency policy by obtaining PPP loans based on falsified information.” Illinois law requires the IG to refer losses of over $5,000 in public funds from misconduct to the Illinois Attorney General.

The IG estimates that the total value of these fraudulent loans stands at $4.5 million, but says that its investigation is still ongoing, with 234 investigations still pending.”

No one of any serious experience as an average American will be surprised, much less shocked, at this.

The hard fact of this really ancient matter is that when the federal government sloshes zillions of federal tax dollars into this or that program there is always – always, always, always – some person or persons with their hand out trying and all too frequently succeeding in siphoning off X amount of federal dollars to their own pocketbooks and wallets.

The bottom line? Human greed is what it is. And as long as there are humans with access to rivers of federal cash, there will always be people with less than scrupulous motivation looking to line their pockets.

Shocking.

Not.