Feds Claw Back $10 Billion From Bogus Pandemic Loans; NJ businessman pleads guilty to selling scam disinfectants he swore killed COVID , and other C-Virus related stories

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Feds claw back $10 billion from bogus pandemic loans:

The federal government has recaptured $10 billion that the government wrongly paid out in pandemic loans to small businesses, according to new numbers Congress released Monday.

Congressional Democrats released the new numbers ahead of a hearing Tuesday on the scope of fraud in pandemic assistance programs.

Democrats argue that the Biden administration is improving in targeting bogus payments, and they said the new numbers back up that assertion: The $10 billion marks a $5 billion increase in just a couple of months.

But it is still a tiny fraction of the total amount of fraud believed to have struck the two loan programs overseen by the Small Business Administration during the pandemic. --->READ MORE HERE

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NJ businessman pleads guilty to selling scam disinfectants he swore killed COVID:

A New Jersey businessman pleaded guilty to selling disinfectant wipes – including to the U.S. government — that he falsely swore could kill off the coronavirus, netting him $2.7 million, prosecutors said.

Paul Andrecola, 63, was convicted Thursday on charges he took advantage of more than 75 desperate customers at the start of the pandemic who thought they were getting cleaning products that would protect them from the deadly virus, according to the the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

“Paul Andrecola’s scheme profited on the fears of the American people during the height of concerns about transmission of COVID-19,” US Attorney Paul Sellinger said in a statement. “Our office is dedicated to protecting public health and prosecuting to the full extent of the law those who commit such egregious criminal acts.”

Andrecola, who owns two Mount Laurel companies and works for a third, manufactured sanitizer and wipes that were not approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, which determines if a pesticide can effectively kill a virus, including COVID, the US Attorney’s Office said. --->READ MORE HERE

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