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16 articles in 7 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.
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Articles, newest first
How Much Money Did Womply Really Make?
The most-cited number about the most-investigated fintech of the pandemic is "$2 billion."
Article2026-09-21PPP1 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
An EIDL processing contract was routed through RER Solutions, a small Herndon, Virginia firm that the House Select Subcommittee said assigned six employees to the job and retained more than $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