Tiesha Johnson, 56, of Farmington Hills, a former analyst for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, pled no contest in the 6th Circuit Court in Oakland County to fraudulently obtaining Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) from the federal government.

A House investigations panel says financial technology firms “abdicated” their responsibility to screen out fraud in applications for a federal program designed to help small businesses stay open and keep workers employed during the pandemic.

People who defrauded the government over pandemic money have been using taxpayer money to buy cars, jewelry and more -- but the FBI says they won’t get away with it for long.

A Michigan man was sentenced today to 32 months in federal prison for fraudulently seeking nearly $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The government's key COVID-19 relief program for small businesses has run out of money.

President Joe Biden has made a Cinco de Mayo taco and enchilada run to highlight his administration’s $28.6 billion program to help eateries that lost business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON – The Senate passed a bill 92-7 on Thursday to extend the deadline for business owners to apply for forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, giving applicants two more months to apply for federal aid. The bill had already passed the House, so it now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Congress started the loan program last year to help businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Business groups lobbied lawmakers to keep the program going to help ensure businesses that still need help can get it. The Small Business Administration reports that it has approved nearly 7.9 million loans totaling about $704 billion.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON – The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved President Joe Biden's pick to oversee the Small Business Administration, an agency that has seen its portfolio expand in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Guzman is a former Obama administration SBA official who currently heads California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate. In that role, she oversaw efforts to help that state’s small businesses survive the pandemic. The Small Business Administration oversees loan programs to help businesses recover from natural disasters, enhances access to capital through loan guarantees and provides training and technical assistance. Guzman said she would work to ensure money gets into the hands of the small businesses hurt the most by the pandemic and the economic crisis through no fault of their own.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden visited a hardware store in the nation’s capital Tuesday to highlight changes he made to the Paycheck Protection Program to benefit small businesses he says were overlooked by the Trump administration earlier in the coronavirus pandemic. Biden administration officials announced last month that for two weeks starting on Feb. 24, the Small Business Administration would only accept applications for the forgivable loan program from firms with fewer than 20 employees. The exclusivity period for small businesses ends Tuesday, with White House officials reporting that the effort led to a 20% increase in minority businesses and a 14% increase in women businesses receiving loans. The Biden administration also changed eligibility rules for the program. AdTrump administration officials argued the program primarily benefitted smaller businesses because a vast majority of the loans in the first months of the program were for less than $150,000.

The Obama administration closed the nuclear deal without making the freeing of American citizens in Iran a prerequisite. The Trump administration then failed to push for the release of the Namazi father and son as hard as it did other Americans held by Iran, Babak Namazi said. Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, called Iran’s continued detention of American citizens a “humanitarian catastrophe” on a news show this Sunday. “My family expects that President Biden and his administration will not make concessions or deals with Iran” absent a requirement that Iran free the father and son, Babak Namazi told reporters. The 84-year-old found that Iran's Revolutionary Guard had unexpectedly placed a new block on his travel out of Iran, however, Babak Namazi said.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden announced changes Monday to target more federal pandemic assistance to the nation’s smallest businesses and ventures owned by women and people of color. Biden says a lot of these mom and pop businesses “got muscled out of the way” by larger businesses seeking federal money in the early days of the pandemic. "America’s small businesses are hurting, hurting badly and they need help now,” Biden said. Under the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program, the administration is establishing a two-week window, starting Wednesday, in which only businesses with fewer than 20 employees — the overwhelming majority of small businesses — can apply for the forgivable loans. The Biden effort is aimed at correcting disparities in how the program was administered by the Trump administration.

The advertiser paid a fee to promote this sponsored article and may have influenced or authored the content. ANN ARBOR – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently re-opened the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for new borrowers and certain existing PPP borrowers. To help small business owners understand the eligibility requirements and application process, 20Fathoms and Ann Arbor SPARK are cohosting a webinar presented by Robert Scott, Regional Administrator for the SBA. “Robert Scott is the architect of the PPP which has been a lifeline to small businesses. “Hearing the details of the program directly from Scott will help these companies most effectively benefit from the support it can provide.”Event details:

Small business owners in Michigan are invited to attend webinar Thursday evening.

Vaccines, testing, health providers ($69 billion). Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Reauthorizes, for three years, funding for community health centers and extends a variety of expiring health care policies, including reimbursement rates for various health care providers and procedures under Medicare and MedicaidTax extenders. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income. Folds in pipeline safety legislation reauthorizing operating grants and safety standards for oil and gas pipelines.

Vaccines, testing, health providers ($69 billion)Delivers more than $30 billion for procurement of vaccines and treatments, distribution funds for states, and a strategic stockpile. Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Postal Service ($10 billion)Forgives a $10 billion loan to the Postal Service provided in earlier relief legislation. The measure also provides President Donald Trump with a last, $1.4 billion installment for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income.

Vaccines, testing, health providers ($69 billion). Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Reauthorizes, for three years, funding for community health centers and extends a variety of expiring health care policies, including reimbursement rates for various health care providers and procedures under Medicare and MedicaidTax extenders. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income. Folds in pipeline safety legislation reauthorizing operating grants and safety standards for oil and gas pipelines.

DIRECT ECONOMIC RELIEF ($286 billion)Unemployment insurance ($120 billion). ___VACCINE, TESTING, HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS ($69 billion)Delivers more than $30 billion for procurement of vaccines and treatments, distribution funds for states, and a strategic stockpile. Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. ___SCHOOLS ($82 billion)Delivers $54 billion to public K-12 schools affected by the pandemic and $23 billion for colleges and universities; $4 billion would be awarded to a Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund; nearly $1 billion for Native American schools. ___POSTAL SERVICE ($10 billion)Forgives a $10 billion loan to the Postal Service provided in earlier relief legislation.

Adds $22 billion for testing, tracing and mitigation, $9 billion for health care providers, and $4.5 billion for mental health. Forgives a $10 billion loan to the Postal Service provided in earlier relief legislation. Reauthorizes, for three years, funding for community health centers and extends a variety of expiring health care policies, including reimbursement rates for various health care providers and procedures under Medicare and MedicaidTax extenders. Business meals would be 100% deductible through 2022 and out-of-pocket health care costs would be deductible after they reach 7.5% of income. Folds in pipeline safety legislation reauthorizing operating grants and safety standards for oil and gas pipelines.

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2020 file photo, a man walks past the boarded-up first floor windows of a Huntington Bank branch in Columbus, Ohio. Huntington, with $120 billion in assets, outsizes TCF, which has assets of around $50 billion. The TCF brand will be changed to Huntington, and Detroit's TCF Center will be renamed after Huntington in the coming years. “We wanted to remain Detroit's hometown bank,” said TCF Financial CEO Gary Torgow, in an interview. “We are going to be much better together,” said Huntington Bank CEO Steve Steinour, noting that Huntington, along with new markets, would also get access to TCF's equipment finance business and inventory finance businesses.

(Caroline Brehman/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed cautious optimism Tuesday that the U.S. economy is rebounding from the pandemic-induced recession with federal support but that more help from the government is likely needed. “We are in a very different situation than we were the last time,” when Congress enacted nearly $3 trillion in emergency financial aid, Mnuchin said. “At that time, the entire economy was shut down.”Mnuchin said that further federal aid should be focused on the most damaged sectors of the economy, such as restaurants and the travel industry. Pressed to say what types of aid the Trump administration would support in a new bill, Mnuchin said the administration would favor sending another round of $1,200 in individual payments. Mnuchin said the Treasury and the SBA had worked to make the forms simpler to fill out.

A Novi man was arrested and charged in a wire fraud scheme involving $3.1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office Eastern District of Michigan, 44-year-old Antonio George is charged in a criminal complaint with one count of wire fraud. The PPP loan is guaranteed by Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES Act). Small businesses across Michigan have received loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, and these loans have kept these businesses alive, said U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider in the release. Every dollar stolen from the program is a dollar stolen from struggling businesses in need.