Manatt Partner Joan Lukey wrote a commentary for Boston Business Journal shedding light on the fraud-related issues that are continuing to transpire under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
According to the article, nearly $7 billion under the CARES Act were delivered to potentially ineligible businesses reported in January 2021. Not only do these frauds result in a loss of taxpayer money and encourage future fraud crimes, but they disadvantage future Congresses and create unfairness to those who followed the rules. Lukey offered solutions for a fraud tip line and state/federal workshare agreements that may improve investigation and prosecution and help prevent future cases. For example, “Conversations between our governor and attorney general on the one hand and our federal Congressional delegation and U.S. attorney on the other could produce a myriad of positive actions, scalable to the lower dollar level of the schemes,” she wrote.
Read the full Boston Business Journal article here.