Does anyone know if applying for PPP loans played a part in this? Anecdotally saw some people register businesses for the sole purpose of collecting PPP but am not sure if they were successful.
Edit: I appear to be wrong here. After some Googling it appears that PPP loan was based on previous years tax returns to I don't think you could collect PPP the first year to establish a business.
Not only that but technically you were only able to apply for PPP if your company existed before February 15th, 2020, to explicitly prevent this sort of behavior.
How would that work? Collect PPP and use it to pay yourself salary? I thought you had to show the people were already employed and paid when you apply. I'm sure it was a mess though.
Sole proprietors were eligible for PPP to cover lost income but it was based on previous years Schedule C so first year business owners likely couldn't apply
That is if you assume people played by the rules, and there was actually validation controls in place
from what I have seen of the PPP and other covid programs the concern was getting the money out as fast as possible not validating claims. There was a SHIT ton of fraud... most of which will never be discovered
Your hypothetical scammer just got $20,000 deposited into their bank account. I don't think adhering to the letter of the loan, and repaying it, is a huge concern of theirs. Withdraw it all, and go live somewhere cheap for a couple years.
Edit: I appear to be wrong here. After some Googling it appears that PPP loan was based on previous years tax returns to I don't think you could collect PPP the first year to establish a business.