Majority of Businesses Given £23bn Covid Loans Would Have Survived Without Them; COVID-19 Testing Lab Owner Pleads Guilty to $14 Million Fraud Scheme Involving Fake Results, and other C-Virus related stories

Majority of businesses given £23bn Covid loans would have survived without them:

Most businesses that received government grants during lockdown would have survived without the handouts, an official report has concluded.

A report published by the Department for Business and Trade suggested “only a quarter” of the 1.4m businesses that benefited from £23bn of Covid-era grants would have gone bust without state support.

The 100-page document concluded that “a relatively high share of the businesses supported would have been likely to survive without cashflow support – implying that the outcomes associated with the programme could potentially have been achieved with lower levels of public spending”.

The conclusion is likely to add to scrutiny of the Government’s spending during Covid, amid mounting concerns about waste during the pandemic. The National Audit Office (NAO) has previously criticised the Bounce Back Loan scheme, saying ministers acted too slowly to put in place anti-fraud measures. Earlier this year the NAO estimated there had been £7.3bn of fraud related to Covid-era support schemes.

Britain is already counting the cost of lockdowns, including a £70bn furlough scheme that subsidised employee wages as well as the legacy of a pandemic that has left more people languishing on benefits and school children behind on their studies.

There are close to 2.8m people who are neither in work nor looking for a job in Britain, with many economically inactive because of poor mental health, including anxiety and depression. --->READ MORE HERE

COVID-19 testing lab owner pleads guilty to $14 million fraud scheme involving fake results:

The co-owner of a Chicago COVID-19 testing laboratory has pleaded guilty to a $14 million fraud scheme in which his company provided fake negative results to people who had been tested and billed the federal government for the tests.

Zishan Alvi, 45, of Inverness, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of wire fraud, and faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in February.

Alvi was indicted in March 2023, more than a year after the FBI raided the headquarters of his company, LabElite, in the Norwood Park neighborhood.

LabElite offered both PCR and rapid COVID-19 tests to consumers at storefronts locations beginning in late 2020.

In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Alvi admitted that between February 2021 and February 2022, his company billed the federal government $14 million for more than 85,000 COVID-19 tests that were never processed. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:

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European Funding Takes a Lead in Unravelling Long COVID

USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

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