Experts Predict Widespread Fraud in SBA Loans. Here’s How Small-Business Owners Can Protect Themselves
Has your small business applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan under the CARES Act? Or is planning to apply? I hope you succeed in getting those forgivable loans. But more important, I hope that the information you’re providing to receive that money is on the up and up.
“If you knowingly make a false representation to a federally insured financial institution, that can be considered bank fraud,” says Jed Silversmith, a lawyer at Blank Rome LLP in Philadelphia. “It carries mandatory jail time and the statute of limitations is 10 years.” Silversmith says that, as a felony, bank fraud is “about as serious as it gets.”
“Experts Predict Widespread Fraud in SBA Loans. Here’s How Small-Business Owners Can Protect Themselves,” by Gene Marks, was published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 22, 2020.