Reports

We performed this review to determine whether the Des Moines Independent Community School District expended ESSER grant funds for allowable purposes in accordance with applicable requirements. We determined that of the 20 expenditures that we reviewed, 17 were allowable and in accordance with applicable requirements. Two expenditures totaling $164,580 were unallowable because they were for advertising and public relations costs prohibited under the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 Code of Federal Regulations part 200), and a...

Congress provided $5.5 billion for the Emergency Assistance to Nonpublic Schools (EANS) program. The purpose of the EANS programs, authorized under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA) and American Rescue Plan (ARP), is to provide services or assistance to eligible nonpublic schools to address educational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 emergency. We conducted an audit to determine whether the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) designed and implemented (1) application processes that adequately assessed nonpublic schools’ eligibility for EANS-funded...

We performed this review to determine whether Anchorage School District (Anchorage) expended ESSER grant funds for allowable purposes in accordance with applicable requirements. We determined that all the ESSER expenditures we reviewed for Anchorage were allowable and in accordance with applicable requirements. We also found that Anchorage complied with key Federal procurement requirements, including those covering the procurement methods to be followed and contract cost, price, and provisions, when procuring the goods or services associated with each ESSER expenditure we reviewed. Because we...

Baltimore, Maryland –Senior United States District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Ayaz Qureshi, age 55, of Severna Park, Maryland to a year and a day in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, in connection with a conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting financial institutions, relating to more than $250,000 in fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) benefits. PPP benefits were a program created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, which was a federal law enacted in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans...

Fort Myers, Florida – United States District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell today sentenced Diop McKenzie (30, Cape Coral) to 45 months in federal prison for bank fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. As part of his sentence, the court ordered McKenzie to pay restitution to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $117,832, the proceeds of the bank and wire fraud.

LAS VEGAS – A federal jury convicted a Nevada man Wednesday for defrauding three banks of more than $11.2 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds intended to help small businesses impacted by the pandemic.

A Riverside County man pleaded guilty today to scheming to defraud the IRS out of more than $2.1 million via the issuing of fake W-2 forms and to fraudulently obtaining nearly $1 million of COVID-19 economic-relief loans.

BOSTON – A Boston woman pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain pandemic-related relief funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) made available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.