Attorney Page Pate was recently quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s article “Small businesses frequent targets of pandemic loan scams” about PPP loan fraud. Pate, Johnson and Church has represented both whistleblowers of PPP loan fraud and a number of people and small businesses who have been caught up in federal and state PPP loan fraud investigations.
Page Pate was quoted as saying that “The government felt that it was more important to put some gas in the tank and put money out in the community quickly,” Pate said. “They knew that there was going to be a certain amount of fraud” because the program was launched so fast. He also discusses how the Department of Justice has prioritized PPP loan scams where people fraudulently use the names and addresses of existing businesses to receive funds in the name of a legitimate business. He explains that “These are run by a network of fraudsters who use legitimate businesses as part of their loan applications and have the money sent to them.”
