To crack down on criminals who defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Congressman William Timmons (SC-04) introduced H.R. 1476, the PPP Shell Company Discovery Act. H.R. 1476 will create a report of PPP loan recipients who 1) had no tax withholdings in calendar year 2019 and 2) received loans four times greater than their highest payroll amount during calendar year 2019. These discrepancies will help identify potential fraudulent loans for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate and prosecute.

“Everything we need to identify PPP loan fraud already exists, but government red tape is holding us back from prosecuting these criminals,” said Congressman William Timmons (SC-04). “With estimates as high as $100 billion in PPP loan fraud, the simple report generated from this legislation will allow the Department of Justice to convict the perpetrators of the biggest theft in the history of the United States.

“We need to see the individuals who stole from a program designed to help save Americans’ jobs during a global pandemic brought to justice as soon as possible. In President Biden’s disastrous budget plan, he calls for $300 million to combat pandemic fraud. My bill is simple and would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to catch these criminals.”

Background:

On February 1, 2023, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, on which Congressman Timmons serves, held a hearing titled “Federal Pandemic Spending: A Prescription for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.” During the hearing, Congressman Timmons pressed DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on the tens of billions of dollars in PPP loan fraud that has yet to be uncovered, revealing the need for Congressional action for the DOJ to continue pursuing these fraudsters and bring them to justice.

Most recently, on March 9, 2023, in a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce hearing, Congressman Timmons spoke on the merits and necessity of H.R. 1476, to which Richard Delmar, Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, referred to as “useful” to identify PPP fraudsters for prosecution by the DOJ.