The Archive · Articles
Articles
72 articles in 11 sections. Newest first.
Reported pieces built on the filings, audits, contracts and data in this archive. Every claim in them links to the record it came from.
Related sections Interactives · Profiles · Source documents
Articles, newest first
The Shuttered Venue Grant Took 102 Days to Open, Four Hours to Close and 150 Days to Pay
Congress gave the Small Business Administration $16.25 billion for the businesses that could not move online.
Article2026-11-07Other programs9 min readPlaid and the Bank Account as Identity
Plaid entered the pandemic as a company that connects apps to bank accounts.
Article2026-11-06Lenders3 min readThe Fraud Police Take a Partnership
DOJ's first COVID-19 fraud director, Kevin Chambers, went to Latham & Watkins. The House subcommittee's investigations chief went to Morrison & Foerster.
Article2026-11-05Oversight5 min readThe Federal Reserve Sued a $4 Billion PPP Lender. Its Owner Settled, Then Became Ambassador to Peru.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco sued Benworth and Bernardo Navarro for $66.98 million. He settled three months before the Senate confirmed him.
Article2026-11-04Lenders5 min readUber Built Its Drivers a PPP Door. It Opened Onto Kabbage.
Of all the gig platforms, one built a lending partnership to get its workers a PPP loan.
Article2026-11-03Lenders4 min readMohan vs. Oudomsine: The Sentencing Lottery
One defendant used six companies to receive $1.79 million in PPP money and got two years.
Article2026-11-02Courts5 min readFEMA Received More Than 3 Million Fillakit Test Tubes, Then Told States Not to Use Them
FEMA ordered COVID-19 test tubes from a company formed six days earlier.
Article2026-10-27Other programs3 min readA Bankrupt Firm's Unit Won a $55 Million FEMA Mask Contract. Its Co-Owner Pleaded Guilty
FEMA gave a bankrupt company's unit a $55 million no-bid N95 order that never arrived.
Article2026-10-26Courts3 min readFederal Government Experts Won $38.5 Million in Mask Contracts for Masks It Did Not Have
The VA and FEMA agreed to pay $38.5 million for N95 masks the company did not have. The contracts paid nothing; two relief loans paid out $1.07 million.
Article2026-10-25Courts4 min readThe Pandemic Press Scorecard
Twenty reporters and teams graded A to D-: Ed Yong first, Felix Salmon last, and a $400 billion fraud figure whose source could not show Congress its math.
Article2026-10-04Politics44 min readFEMA's $237.6 Million Airlift of Protective Gear: 35 Percent Traced to Priority Sites
FEMA paid $237.6 million in 2020 to fly about 1.1 billion pieces of protective equipment into the United States.
Article2026-10-02Other programs3 min readNorth Carolina Sent $3.1 Billion in Coronavirus Relief Funds Before Verifying Spending
North Carolina's Pandemic Recovery Office distributed about $3.1 billion in relief money before it independently verified that spending in November 2020.
Article2026-10-02Other programs1 min readA Pandemic "Fraud" Figure Can Mean a Conviction, an Estimate or an Agency Mistake
The Small Business Administration's inspector general put potentially fraudulent PPP and COVID disaster-loan money at more than $200 billion.
Article2026-10-01Oversight3 min readBaton Rouge Woman Gets 36 Months for Six Fake Relief Applications That Drew Over $440,000
Linda Gurvin applied in the names of businesses that had closed years earlier, and of a foundation and a church she formed after the pandemic began.
Article2026-10-01Courts2 min readThe IRS Can Spend Up to $2.25 Billion to Have Four Companies Scan Its Paper Mail
In September 2025 the IRS signed five-year contracts with Iron Mountain, 22nd Century Technologies, GovCIO and Vastec to scan the paper it still receives.
Article2026-10-01Contractors6 min readThe Lawsuit That Made SBA Publish EIDL Borrowers' Names, and Seven Other Civil Cases
News organizations won the loan data in November 2020.
Article2026-10-01Courts3 min read$2.4 Million in Loans Backed by Tax Returns Never Filed With the IRS, Then Wired to Egypt
Mohamed A. Awad of Ocala, Florida, was sentenced in 2024 to 36 months for fraudulently obtaining over $2.4 million in PPP loans and EIDL payments.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readA Discount Store in Houston Cashed 1,100 Fake Paychecks Worth $3 Million
Amir Aqeel led a conspiracy that submitted 75 fraudulent PPP loan applications in 2020 with fabricated bank records and fake federal tax forms.
Article2026-09-30Courts3 min readA Dormant Street-Promotions LLC Funded a Camden Yards-View Apartment and a Mercedes
A federal judge in Baltimore sentenced Lawrence A.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readA Dormant Trucking Company Claimed 26 Employees and Sought a Second PPP Loan Anyway
Keith McConnell of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in 2022 to 18 months in prison for a scheme that sought $467,200 in PPP funds.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readA Letter to the Commissioner: ADP and the Aggregate 941-X Pipeline
On September 13, 2023, ADP's chief legal officer, Dave Kwon, sent a letter via overnight mail to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel.
Article2026-09-30ERC5 min readAbbott And Quidel: The Test Makers That Survived
Abbott sold about $7.7 billion of COVID-19 tests in 2021 and $297 million in 2025.
Article2026-09-30Health4 min readAn Archdiocese Official's Fake Contractors, Then $2.1 Million in Pandemic Loans
Kenneth Gaughan, 44, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced in September 2022 to 78 months in prison, later reduced to 70, for two separate financial schemes.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readBaltimore Tax-Bribery Official Also Ran a Separate $138,000 PPP Fraud on a Fabricated Payroll Return
Joseph Gillespie of Baltimore was sentenced in February 2025 to four years for a bribery scheme and a wire-fraud conspiracy involving CARES Act relief.
Article2026-09-30Courts3 min readBottom Line Concepts Paid Referral Partners 10 Percent of Its ERC Fee
Snoop Dogg, Kevin O'Leary, and a Nevada charter school's board packet expose the referral machinery on top of a 20 percent cut of a federal tax credit.
Article2026-09-30ERC4 min readBrillient's Two Pandemic Jobs
In the pandemic years Brillient worked two federal jobs at once: $85.6 million of SBA disaster-loan support work and digitization pilots for the IRS.
Article2026-09-30Contractors5 min readDan Gilbert's Subcontract Chain
The public award record for the federal government's largest COVID-19 EIDL processing contract shows one company.
Article2026-09-30Contractors4 min readFive Payroll Companies, Five Different Lines Around the Same Credit
Nothing required a small business to run its Employee Retention Credit claim through a payroll company at all.
Article2026-09-30ERC6 min readFresh From Federal Prison, a Halfway-House Resident Claimed a $99,000 Taxi Business
Kipterrez James, 44, of Cincinnati, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on February 11, 2025, to 13 months in prison for COVID-19 pandemic relief fraud.
Article2026-09-30Courts1 min readHouston Woman Sentenced to 70 Months Over $1.9 Million in Fake-Employee PPP Loans
Lola Shalewa Barbara Kasali was sentenced in 2022 to 70 months for using two companies with no employees to draw more than $1.9 million from PPP.
Article2026-09-30Courts3 min readHow 41 Companies Handled Pandemic Layoffs
Uber cut 6,700 jobs in May 2020, Stockwell AI shut down and Sandbox VR let 80 percent of its staff go. Ten of the 41 companies here took PPP loans.
Article2026-09-30PPP65 min readInnovation Refunds Sold Through Banks, Not Just to Businesses
Innovation Refunds' 25 percent fee, its ownership structure, and its WARN Act litigation are covered elsewhere.
Article2026-09-30ERC5 min readJames Stote's $35 Million PPP Recruiting Ring Nets Ten Years, Reaches Three Districts
James Stote was sentenced to ten years in prison in May 2022 for leading a nationwide scheme to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readMillion Man LLC Took Its PPP Applications to Three Banks on Falsified Tax and Payroll Records
Christian Johnson was 23 when a complaint accused him of fraudulent PPP applications for Million Man LLC, and 25 when a judge sent him to prison.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readOmega Funding Solutions: Promoter and Funder Under One Roof
Omega built an ERC business, then built a lender to advance its clients cash against the refunds that business filed for.
Article2026-09-30ERC6 min readShe Filed PPP Loans for People Who Didn't Qualify, Then Took a 20-to-30 Percent Cut
Lisa Evans of Olive Branch, Mississippi, got 18 months for a scheme that took more than $5 million from PPP through loans for people who did not qualify.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readStolen EIDL Money, a $77,898 Ford F-350 and a Seven-Week Run
A July 2020 identity-theft report in Clackamas County led investigators to a man calling himself Daniel Cohen, later identified as David Unitan.
Article2026-09-30Courts2 min readThe Bank Never Lost the Money
ATLANTA — When Andre Lee Gaines was sentenced in October 2021, the judgment ordered him to repay $806,710 in Paycheck Protection Program money.
Article2026-09-30PPP6 min readThe mRNA Suppliers: 93 Percent of Maravai's 2021 CleanCap Revenue Came From COVID
In 2021, Maravai LifeSciences estimated, about $557.4 million of its $599.1 million in CleanCap revenue, 93 percent, came from COVID-19 demand.
Article2026-09-30Health6 min readThirty-Four Cases, Thirty-Three Schemes, No Fraud Rate
Every federal ERC prosecution and civil refund fight found through July 2026, in 26 district courts, with five dollar columns never added together.
Article2026-09-30ERC9 min readBlueacorn Won Against Capital Plus; the Arbitrator Said $19.8 Million Should Go to PayNerd
A federal judge in Phoenix entered judgment for Blueacorn against Capital Plus Financial in May 2025, on an arbitration award that is still sealed.
Article2026-09-28Lenders7 min readPPP Reopened Nine Days Before the People Running It Left
On January 11, 2021, the Small Business Administration reopened the Paycheck Protection Program portal with up to $284 billion to lend by March 31.
Article2026-09-28PPP10 min readHow Much Did Bank of America Make From Pandemic Relief?
Bank of America made more Paycheck Protection Program loans than any other lender: 491,034 of them, for $34.4 billion.
Article2026-09-27Lenders16 min readHow Much Did Blueacorn Make From Pandemic Relief?
Blueacorn made no PPP loans. From January 2021 to February 2022 it collected $1.08 billion of the processing fees the SBA paid the lenders that made them.
Article2026-09-27Lenders22 min readHow Much Did Capital Plus Financial Make From Pandemic Relief?
Capital Plus Financial made 395,359 PPP loans in 2021 and booked $929.2 million in SBA fees; $305.7 million was left after agent fees paid or owed.
Article2026-09-27Lenders22 min readHow Much Did Cross River Bank Make From Pandemic Relief?
Cross River Bank made 478,866 PPP loans, more than any lender except Bank of America.
Article2026-09-27Lenders16 min readHow Much Did Customers Bank Make From Pandemic Relief?
The SBA owed Customers Bank about $558 million in processing fees for the 249,661 PPP loans it made.
Article2026-09-27Lenders13 min readHow Much Did Itria Ventures Make From Pandemic Relief?
The SBA owed Itria Ventures, the lending arm of the New York fintech Biz2Credit, about $473 million in processing fees on 172,831 PPP loans.
Article2026-09-27Lenders12 min readHow Much Did JPMorgan Chase Make From Pandemic Relief?
JPMorgan Chase lent more PPP money than any other lender, $41.6 billion in 438,565 loans of its own, and the SBA's schedule set a processing fee for every one.
Article2026-09-27Lenders19 min readHow Much Did M&T Bank Make From Pandemic Relief?
The SBA's loan file credits M&T Bank with 90,029 PPP loans and, on our fee model, $475.2 million in processing fees.
Article2026-09-27Lenders12 min readHow Much Did PNC Make From Pandemic Relief?
The SBA owed PNC Bank about $607 million in processing fees for the 119,352 PPP loans it made, priced loan by loan. PNC never published a total.
Article2026-09-27Lenders15 min readHow Much Did TD Bank Make From Pandemic Relief?
On the SBA's fee schedule, TD Bank was owed about $497.9 million for the 133,140 PPP loans it made.
Article2026-09-27Lenders13 min readHow Much Did Truist Make From Pandemic Relief?
The SBA owed Truist Bank about $588.5 million in processing fees on its 117,956 PPP loans, on a loan-by-loan model.
Article2026-09-27Lenders12 min readHow Much Did U.S. Bank Make From Pandemic Relief?
The SBA owed U.S. Bank about $507 million in processing fees on the 174,822 PPP loans it made, on a loan-by-loan model. U.S.
Article2026-09-27Lenders13 min readHow Much Did Wells Fargo Make From Pandemic Relief?
The SBA owed Wells Fargo about $690 million in processing fees for the 280,717 PPP loans it made.
Article2026-09-27Lenders17 min readHow Much Did Womply Make From Pandemic Relief?
Womply told Congress its PPP fee revenue for 2021 came to $2.09 billion and its net income that year to $1.3 billion.
Article2026-09-27Lenders25 min readWho Made Money From Pandemic Relief
Womply, which arranged Paycheck Protection Program loans for other lenders, billed them $1.8 billion to $2.6 billion and heads the ranking.
Article2026-09-27Lenders2 min readThe 2025 ERC Endgame
A single sentence in a 2025 reconciliation bill closed off part of the Employee Retention Credit by date rather than by eligibility.
Article2026-09-14ERC7 min readPondera's 1.1 Million Flags
A Thomson Reuters subsidiary scored nearly ten million pandemic-era unemployment claims for California. The state stopped paying 1.1 million of them.
Article2026-09-07Unemployment6 min readLetter 105-C Starts a Clock
The Employee Retention Credit has a merits fight — whether a given business actually qualified, whether a government order suspended its operations.
Article2026-08-31ERC4 min readThe Filter That Froze California
California's unemployment-card scandal ran the other way: a fraud filter locked real people out of benefits they had already won.
Article2026-08-24Unemployment3 min readThe ERC Mill Economy
The Employee Retention Credit was born as a quiet tax subsidy and grew into a cold-call industry.
Article2026-08-17ERC2 min readPUA Was Built to Be Uncheckable
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance had a moral reason to exist. The old unemployment system was built around payroll jobs and employer wage records.
Article2026-08-10Unemployment2 min readThe HRSA Uninsured Testing Gold Rush
The HRSA Uninsured Program had a clean promise: if a provider tested or treated an uninsured person for COVID, the federal government would pay.
Article2026-08-03Health2 min readBlake Hall and ID.me's California Contract
A daily-deals site for veterans became the identity gate for at least 25 state unemployment agencies.
Article2026-07-27Unemployment5 min readThe Bottom Line Concepts Contract
A Nevada charter school's board packet, posted because state law required it, contains a fully executed ERC consulting agreement.
Article2026-07-20ERC7 min readThe Fifty Percent Rule
When the government sets a services contract aside for a small business, it attaches a rule that controls how much work the prime must retain.
Article2026-07-13Contractors6 min readThe Six-Person Prime Contractor That Ran EIDL
RER Solutions, a small Virginia firm, ran an EIDL processing contract; a House subcommittee said it assigned six employees and retained over $340 million.
Article2026-07-06EIDL2 min readProvider Relief Fund: The Formula That Paid Medicare First
The Provider Relief Fund did not start with a fraud ring. It started with a formula.
Article2026-06-29Health2 min readAirline Payroll Support: Bailout With Strings
The airline payroll bailout was one of the cleaner political bargains of the pandemic.
Article2026-06-22Other programs2 min readThe Agents Got Nothing
PPP made a lot of people rich on paperwork. The lenders got processing fees. The software platforms and referral channels cut their own deals.
Article2026-06-15PPP6 min readThe Banks Served Their Own Customers First, and Courts Shrugged
The first round of PPP ran out in less than two weeks. Borrowers who never got through the portal blamed the banks.
Article2026-06-08PPP2 min readRelated pages
Pages elsewhere in the archive that link to these articles.
- Womply's PPP fees, lender by lender · Data
- Bottom Line Concepts, LLC · Profile