Phantom Companies Got More Than $1 Billion in Coronavirus Aid

A federal program meant to help small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic may have sent more than $1 billion to places it shouldn’t have gone, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek analysis of Small Business Administration data.

In some parts of the country the SBA approved far more $10,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) grants than the number of eligible businesses, the analysis found. The epicenter was six adjacent congressional districts in the Chicago area, where 81,000 grants were approved even though there are only 19,000 eligible recipients. That’s more than $600 million going to phantom entrepreneurs.