160 defendants. $245 million intended. $820,000 cashed. Keep the three.
‘Fur Lives Matter’ case turns heads as DOJ’s ‘Fraud Week’ targets taxpayer swindlers
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One hundred sixty defendants. Two hundred forty-five million intended. Eight hundred twenty thousand actually cashed.
Summary
- Fox News reports the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division summer surge, branded Fraud Week, netted more than 160 criminal defendants and about $245 million in intended losses to taxpayers, with busts from Los Angeles to Philadelphia.
- U.S. Attorney Matt Price of the Western District of Missouri said his office was one of 44 in the Heartland Fraud Surge from June through Sept. 1, aimed at SBA and COVID-era fraud after what he called the previous four years. Attorney General Todd Blanche instructed prosecutors to charge fraud cases of all sizes.
- In the Fur Lives Matter case, prosecutors say Missouri man Jamie Gray claimed 19 businesses, including Fur Lives Matter, Fur Lives Matter LLC, Chows & Pals, and God's Chow Chow, and sought nearly $56 million in PPP and EIDL funds through 29 applications. DOJ said he stole the identity of a real out-of-state company that had no knowledge of him. Only that real firm existed at the Feb. 15, 2020, eligibility cutoff. Gray allegedly received about $820,000.
- Vice President JD Vance said people who screwed the American taxpayer are cut off from future benefits. Price said Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe launched Operation Show-Me the Money with federal partners, and he credited SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler for suspending suspected fraudulent borrowers and sending demand letters. Charges are accusations unless proven.
Commentary
A night-shift dad still counts a paycheck on a kitchen table and knows a disaster loan is supposed to mean a shop that existed, not 19 pet names on a stolen identity. He did not pay the levy so $56 million in asks could sit while $820,000 walked.
One hundred sixty defendants. Two hundred forty-five million intended. Twenty-nine applications. Eight hundred twenty thousand cashed. The linoleum in that SBA office still remembers the real shop that never signed. The honest household already bought the overtime for the 160.
Look every working father who still files a real EIN after a night shift in the eye and answer this: if $820,000 already walked on a stolen pet-shop name, who still owns the next demand letter a four-year chase left unsent?
Comments
I stood a gate so a real EIN still meant a hold. 19 pet names is not a weather report.
29 applications. Nearly $56 million sought. Feb. 15, 2020 cutoff. Print the three.
Allied ledgers still treat a stolen company name as a breach, not a cute LLC.
Vance: cut off. Loeffler: demand letters. File both.
I still count a paycheck at 2 a.m. I want the next fake shop empty.
A $245 million intended pile is not a vibe. It is a warning the street already paid.
A stolen identity on a disaster loan is a second border around every honest till.
Fox printed 160, $245 million, and $820,000. Argue those nouns.
Charge the small files too. Send the letters. A pet-shop alias is not a souvenir.