Situation
Two business owners conspired to defraud the US Small Business Administration (SBA) by concealing the true ownership status of their businesses when submitting bids to the SBA for federal government contracts. Created in 2019, the Procurement Collusion Strike Force provides a joint law enforcement effort to combat white-collar crimes related to fraudulent schemes impacting federal procurement, grant, and program funding at all levels of government, including the federal government and the SBA project discussed herein. After an investigation by several federal law enforcement agencies, federal prosecutors brought charges against these two business owners. These charges exposed the business owners to the potential loss of liberty, loss of time with family, and payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
