San Diego County PPP Loan Fraud Lawyers.

Your lawyer should compare the PPP submission being questioned with its supporting records under the applicable rule, then explain what that comparison means for your response to the particular issue raised. If you receive a qualifying final SBA loan review decision, you may appeal it, while an SBA request for additional information may ask you to explain your eligibility for the loan or the amount you claimed.

What the loan records need to show

SBA reviews eligibility under the governing statutes, the rules and guidance available when you applied, and the terms of your application. The original 2020 PPP rule required documentation supporting eligibility and qualifying payroll, and depending on the borrower, payroll-processor records could help show the payroll used in the application. The applicant certified that the application information and the supporting documents and forms supplied were true and accurate in all material respects. The applicant separately affirmed that the tax documents supplied to the lender to confirm the eligible loan amount were identical to those submitted to the IRS. If a payroll figure in your application is disputed, your lawyer can trace how the figure was calculated using the relevant payroll records and the tax-document versions actually supplied to see whether those records support the disputed amount under the applicable calculation.

If information suggests you may be ineligible for the loan or the amount you claimed, SBA may request more information directly from you or have your lender send you a written request. SBA considers your response, and failing to respond may lead to an adverse decision about your eligibility for the loan or the amount you claimed. When reviewing your forgiveness application under the requirements for the form you used, your lender should work with you to correct any calculation errors it identifies or address any material lack of supporting evidence it finds. If SBA determines that you were ineligible for the loan, it directs the lender to deny forgiveness, and if it finds you ineligible for the loan amount or forgiveness amount you claimed, it directs denial of all or part of the requested forgiveness, as appropriate. SBA may also seek repayment of the outstanding loan balance.

If SBA has issued a final decision

A letter from your lender may convey SBA's final loan review decision, and SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals can hear an appeal of a qualifying final SBA decision but cannot directly hear an appeal of the lender's own decision. The borrower has 30 calendar days after it receives a qualifying final SBA loan review decision to file an appeal. The appeal petition must, among other requirements, include the final SBA decision and explain the specific errors you allege in that decision, using factual information and legal arguments to support your challenge.

What a knowing false-claim allegation requires

Section 3729(a)(1)(B) of the False Claims Act imposes liability on a person who knowingly makes or uses a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim. If you receive a civil investigative demand from the Department of Justice, the demand must identify the conduct being investigated and the legal provision allegedly violated. If the demand seeks documents, its description of the requested records tells your lawyer what to assemble for the response, and the date stated in the demand sets the timetable for preparing it.

The False Claims Act's knowledge requirement can be satisfied by actual knowledge, deliberate ignorance or reckless disregard, and the Act does not require proof of specific intent to defraud. In Schutte, the Supreme Court explained that the Act's knowledge inquiry focuses on what the defendant knew and believed when submitting the claim. An interpretation developed afterward, even if objectively reasonable, cannot erase actual knowledge if the defendant knew the claim was false when submitting it. If a knowing false-claim allegation concerns a disputed payroll figure, your lawyer can read any explanation from the time alongside the numerical records to connect how the figure was calculated with what you understood when you submitted it.

A San Diego County settlement involving eligibility

On June 12, 2024, DOJ reported that Rancho Santa Fe Association, in San Diego County, paid $2,037,451.44 to settle False Claims Act allegations concerning its April 2020 PPP loan. The government contended that the association was ineligible for that loan because it was a 501(c)(4) organization and that it later caused SBA to forgive the same loan.

Where the San Diego County connection matters

The Southern District of California comprises San Diego County and Imperial County. A False Claims Act lawsuit under section 3730 may be brought in a district where any one defendant can be found, resides or transacts business, or where an act prohibited by section 3729 occurred. If you're facing a federal criminal charge, federal district courts have jurisdiction over offenses against federal law. Unless Congress expressly provides otherwise, an offense spanning more than one district may be prosecuted in a district where it began, continued or was completed.