More than $200 billion have been stolen from the U.S. government’s Covid-19 relief programs, a federal watchdog said Wednesday, adding that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) had weakened controls in a rush to disburse the funds.
According to the SBA, at least 17% of all funds related to the government’s coronavirus Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) schemes were given to potentially fraudulent actors.
The SBA disbursed about $1.2 trillion of government funds over the course of the pandemic.
.The agency said put the potential fraud estimate at $36 billion, noting that over 86% of that likely fraud took place in 2020.
