A Bolivar County resident is the first in Mississippi to be accused of fraudulently filing for the Mississippi Development Authority’s “Back to Business” program, which used federal CARES Act funds to assist small businesses. State Auditor Shad White says his office is working closely with state agencies and private auditors overseeing funds to identify fraud.
White says “For the back to business program, the state decided to hire a third party to come in and look and see if the money that was going out the door had signs of fraud. And Balch & Bingham actually caught this case, reported it to us, and we then we bared down, proofed the case out and made the arrest.”
While the accused applied for around $400 thousand dollars, the party only received approximately $38 thousand.
White says there is a lot of cash flow from the federal government to state programs. He says the state will need more boots on the ground to assist in the oversight of coronavirus relief funding.
“So we’re prepared to do that over the course of the next, really three years, because this money is going to be spent in an amount of time stretched out over that period. In addition to that, we’re constantly looking at new technological tools that we can use to catch more fraud.”
White says his office is also working with other state agencies using and distributing relief funding, and will likely continue to monitor this cash flow for the coming years.
“And it’s going to be very tempting for some people, some bad actors, to steal some of that money. They need to know that if they’re thinking about stealing that money, it’s not just the folks in their office that they work with that they have to fool, they’re gonna have to fool us too. They may fool us for a little while, but they’re not going to fool us forever. We’re going to get you at some point if you decide to steal stimulus money.”
White says the use of technology and partnerships with other agencies are helping to ensure funding for coronavirus relief is used properly.
