People reporting pandemic loan fraud could earn conditional cash awards

Qualifying tipsters would receive a share of case money deposited in the award fund. The rate would depend on who faced the case: 10% for U.S. nationals or U.S.-based organizations, and 15% for foreign nationals or organizations abroad. Original information must help produce a final conviction, settlement, or plea agreement. When several tipsters help, only the one who contributed most could receive an award. A conviction would become final when appeals end or the time to appeal expires.

Tips would need to come from the tipster’s independent knowledge or analysis. For information officials already know, the tipster must be its original source. Information drawn only from public allegations or reports must meet the source exception. The inspector general must receive the information after enactment or through a route other than its fraud hotline. Information would not count toward an award if investigators cannot disclose whether it helped the case. Program authority would end when the last timely filed covered case meets the appeal conditions, with unresolved award appeals allowed to continue.

Officials could reduce awards to zero for tipsters who planned or started the wrongdoing. These rules would apply to tipsters reporting financial misconduct or fraud by recipients of Small Business Administration aid. A final conviction for planning or starting the wrongdoing would bar an award tied to that misconduct. Recipients must agree to repay the full award if finally convicted of an offense related to the information that earned it.

The Small Business Administration would assess an additional civil fine in covered pandemic loan cases. The fine would cover people and organizations facing the pandemic loan enforcement cases listed in the bill. The agency could agree to a lower amount. It could collect the final amount from federal payments owed to the person or organization. A conviction would count as final when appeals end or the time to appeal expires.

People would be barred from retaliating against someone because of a disclosure under the program. Disclosures would concern reasonably suspected financial misconduct or fraud by recipients of Small Business Administration aid. People alleging retaliation could seek relief through the legal process referenced in the bill.