Reports

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery is assessing the Department of the Treasury's Direct Loan Program, which provided approximately $2.7 billion through 35 loans to passenger air carriers and related businesses, cargo air carriers, and businesses critical to maintaining national security. The objectives of the audit are to 1) determine if the processes to approve loans followed requirements under Section 4003(b) of the CARES Act and other appropriate regulations and guidance and 2) evaluate Treasury’s Direct Loan Program loan portfolio management process and determine whether it follows best practices established by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or other appropriate authority. As part of this effort, SIGPR is partnering with the Department of Defense OIG in reviewing the loans that were issued in the interest of national security. 
 

The OIG is conducting a survey of inmates in BOP-managed federal prisons regarding BOP's COVID-19 pandemic response.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has initiated a review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) use of home confinement as a tool to mitigate the effect of the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the federal prison population.  The review will assess the BOP’s process for implementing the use of home confinement as authorized under the CARES Act, the process for its consideration of the eligibility criteria outlined in the Attorney General’s March 26 and April 3, 2020 memoranda, and the process by which BOP headquarters evaluated wardens’ recommendations that inmates who did not meet the Attorney General’s criteria be placed in home confinement.  The review will also select particular cases for examination to determine whether there were irregularities in the BOP’s processes.  If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider including other issues that may arise during the course of the review.  The OIG is undertaking this review in response to requests from Members of Congress, and issues the OIG identified during the series of remote inspections it has conducted regarding the BOP’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Miami, Fl. – Federal prosecutors have charged two Florida residents with bank fraud conspiracy for allegedly using synthetic identities to commit crimes, including defrauding banks and stealing over $3 million from Covid-19 relief programs.

A North Carolina man pleaded guilty today to perpetrating three schemes between March and July 2020 connected to the COVID-19 pandemic, through which he defrauded consumers and the federal government’s relief programs.

An Ashburn man pleaded guilty today to defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a federal initiative designed to help businesses pay their employees and meet their basic expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A North Carolina man was charged by criminal complaint unsealed today for fraudulently seeking more than $414,000 in COVID-19 relief guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.