As I sat having my morning cigarette and scanning the internet for the latest news on covid-19, unemployment for gig workers and such, I get a message.
So, I'm intrigued. Being an independent contractor, I've been obsessively combing the news each day for any communication regarding the PPP( Paycheck Protection Program) and EDIL(Economic Disaster Injury Loan) programs. I'm also "non-essential" so these two programs are really mine and my family's only hope of surviving the Covid-19 pandemic with our home and income semi-intact. So, I give it a listen.
Oh. My. God.
The file is one of those things that seems unreal. A woman, frustrated by repeated calls to check on her EDIL loan, finally gets to a sympathetic CSR that lays out what he sees as a huge scam. As he states on the file:
"I don't give a fuck if I lose my job, I've had it with this shit. "
You can listen to the YouTube video at the link below but the gist is that, three days after the EDIL loan program was opened for Covid-19 affected business, all of the applications were directed OFFSITE to a 3rd party vendor. This meant that SBA employees had NO ACCESS to these applications and, if the SBA employees claims on the audio can be believed, the American public had no ultimate access to the information through the Freedom of Information Act.
Now, you might say "what's wrong with that? The SBA was likely outsourcing the applications to speed the process up." Possibly... until you really look at the EDIL program and what was set up for the Covid-19 pandemic.
The EDIL program isn't new. This program has been, in one form or anther, the main SBA lending program that the SBA has used for disaster lending for decades. American business and home owners have relied on this program to keep themselves afloat and rebuild after major disasters since the SBA'S inception in 1953.
What is new is the addition of a loan "advance " pool that was funded to the tune of $1 Billion dollars. According to the SBA website, this $10,000 advance would be made available "within days" of a "successful loan application."
(Originally, this statememt indicated that applicants would receive the $10k within 3 days of application, regardless of whether or not they were approved. The website has since been changed. )
Now, if this sounds insane to you, you're not alone. I was floored by this news. $10k 100% FORGIVABLE grant, no matter if the loan was approved or not?!?
I applied for it, just like thousands of other small businesses, hoping it was legit, expecting the strings to show up sooner or later. Why not?
Well, according to the SBA employee on the audio, the $1 Billion set aside for this "loan advance " program was gone in 3 days... 100,000 loans DENIED.... and yet they were given the $10k advance with NO oversight by the general SBA.... only "top level" officials alluded to by the SBA employee on the tape could access these applications... all processed by an offsite, 3rd party vendor. He also states that "We're expecting 50% of businesses to permanently close."
50%?!?
If that doesn't scare you, it should. That's a death knell for the American economy.
Again, you might say.."well, wasn't that the idea? 3 days, 100,000 loans... pretty fast processing there."
And, you'd be right... except for one little thing that I personally haven't seen mentioned by anyone other than the federal worker on the tape.
It is literally IMPOSSIBLE to process 100,000 business loans in 3 days... these loans require an in-depth analysis to determine how much a business needs in order to recover from whatever disaster has affected them. This was true during Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 and is just as true today for the Covid-19 pandemic. And, since we've all heard how overwhelmed the SBA system is with applications, and the problems they've had with websites, servers etc ect, the only way such analysis would be possible is by direct interview of the applicants.... and that's just not possible. 100,000 interviews in 3 days?!? Enough analysis of each business to deny the application and yet hand over $1 Billion dollars?!?
Near as I can tell, there is no way of finding out who that money went to or how the applications were processed. The SBA employee on the audio claims that many of the initial applications that the SBA could see were filled out with zero's for all lines where income and expenses were supposed to be entered. Were these obvious scammers handed a $10k check? Or, as I and the poster of the audio file suspect , was the money funneled into a myriad of shell companies designed to direct the money into the pockets of the Deep State?.
Take a listen, do your research and make up your own mind... from where I stand, it looks pretty fishy to me.
Original YouTube post:
Scam Alert Image from
https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/daphne-jordan/scam-alert