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The largest consumer bankruptcy law firm in Illinois and one of the biggest in the country has filed for bankruptcy after taking millions in taxpayer-backed loans meant to help struggling businesses survive the pandemic. The Semrad Law Firm LLC, which markets itself as DebtStoppers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 26 in Delaware, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic. A Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to reorganize under a judge’s supervision and keep operating while paying creditors at least part of what they’re owed. ... The PPP loans were aimed at small businesses that needed help keeping employees on the...

A new Associated Press analysis of government data suggests 10 percent of all COVID aid was lost to fraud or theft. That figure will likely grow.Over the past three years, the federal government distributed more than $4.2 trillion in aid connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $400 billion of it—nearly one in every $10 spent—was either wasted or stolen, according to a new report. And that figure is likely to grow, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, "as investigators dig deeper into thousands of potential schemes." Already, prosecutors have charged more than 2,230 defendants with pandemic-related fraud crimes, the...

White House aides repeatedly refuse to address the cost of President Joe Biden’s decision on Wednesday to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt. “I can’t give you that off the top of my head,” White House director of domestic policy Susan Rice said Wednesday during the daily briefing when asked whether the administration had estimated the cost of the president’s decision. She repeated the cost of the program would not be fully known until the federal government knew how many people would take advantage of it. The president spent several months stalling a decision on canceling student debt, telling...

Some of the wealthiest celebrities reportedly took advantage of the Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans offered by the U.S. government designed to aid desperate businesses hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic wreaked havoc on working-class citizens and forced millions of businesses around the globe to close, yet recent findings indicate that wealthy celebrities took advantage of PPP loans in spite of their wealth, according to the Daily Mail. Some of the reported celebrities included Tom Brady, Khloe Kardashian, Reese Witherspoon, Kanye West and Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, according to Daily Mail. Kanye West’s apparel company, Yeezy LLC, reportedly borrowed...

The daughter of a Florida U.S. congressional candidate pled guilty to having received $300,000 in COVID-19 relief loans by submitting fraudulent information. Damara Holness, 28, daughter of congressional candidate Democrat Dale Holness, appeared at a federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday where she faced serious allegations. There, Holness told Judge Rodolfo Ruiz she would plead guilty... ....The DOJ statement continued: "Holness issued checks from the company bank account made out to others who agreed, for a fee, to help with the fraud."...

The Golden Horseshoe is a weekly designation from Just the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the government. The award is named for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a whopping $640 each back in the 1980s. This week, our award is going to the United States Small Business Administration and Treasury Department for awarding at least $200 million, but as much as $420 million, to Chinese Communist Party-linked businesses by way of the Paycheck Protection Program, intended to assist U.S. small businesses that were devastated by the coronavirus pandemic,...

Recipients of PPP loans have filed for bankruptcy after the money ran out.At least a Half Billion in PPP Loans Won't Be Repaid Hundreds of companies employing 23,400 people went Bankrupt after PPP Funds Ran Out.The total number of companies that failed despite getting PPP loans is likely far higher. The Journal only analyzed the big borrowers from the program, which accounted for about half of the overall loans though only about 13.5% of the total participants. And many small businesses simply liquidate when they run out of cash rather than file for bankruptcy.The SBA has only released data on...

NFL receiver Josh Bellamy has been charged and arrested for allegedly participating in a multi-million dollar Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud scheme, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. According to the Justice Department, Bellamy, along with talent management company owner Phillip J. Augustin and several others, applied for PPP loans worth more than a combined $24 million. At least 42 of the requested loans were approved to the tune of some $17.4 million, the department said. Bellamy allegedly received a loan of $1,246,565 for his company Drip Entertainment LLC. He then allegedly used the loan to buy more than $100,000...