PPP Fraud Movement?

Are we going to see some accountability, years later? (paywalled Tribune article):

• About 400 government employees investigated by the state of Illinois improperly tapped a federal pandemic relief fund program meant to keep small businesses afloat — part of a nationwide wave of Paycheck Protection Program fraud that siphoned tens of billions of dollars from taxpayers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  While more than 200 have lost their jobs or voluntarily resigned, some have been referred for criminal prosecution for fraudulently obtaining the taxpayer-funded forgivable business loans, according to an Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General report.

  As of June 30, the end of fiscal year 2025, the OEIG found “reasonable cause” in 378 investigations, concluding that many state employees acquired PPP loans “based on falsified information,” the watchdog’s annual report released earlier this month said.

  Without naming individuals, the report listed more than 100 employees from Illinois state government departments, including Human Services, Juvenile Justice, Corrections and Children and Family Services, who received more than $2.8 million in PPP loans. Many loans were in the $20,000 range, while a few exceeded $41,000. The investigations date back to 2022.

Again, this is a state investigation. There were quite a few CPD exempts who were found to have submitted applications for these loans, many for single-employee "security firms" pretty much meaning themselves, not to mention dozens of OEMC employees and we're told, quite a few CTU members.

And accountability was minimal:

• Illinois - 501 cases that they bothered to track
• Cook County - claimed a mere 65 cases out of 22,000 employees
• Cook County Sheriff - 163 cases investigated
• Cook County Courts - 78 cases
• the City of Chicago identified over 1,000 cases, but only investigated 60 cases, closing NINE

And guess what took up the bulk of the "investigative process"?

• CPD

But that was to control the investigation of the connected - not to affix accountability.