For the initial loan to get it issued quickly, that’s correct.
To have the loan forgiven, you had to submit documents at tax time to verify it or it became a low interest loan that had to be paid back.
PPP was one of the best ideas that came out of locking down the entire country because otherwise a tooooon of people would have been laid off immediately. Instead, even people who couldn’t do any work at all due to lack of child care were able to be paid, maintain insurance and benefits. They had to act so quickly.
I didn't say there was no fraud in the PPP program.
The OP comment didn't mention the PPP specifically as stimulus.
The context of the article, is individuals investing money in meme stocks.
The PPP went to business owners (with the assumption they would pay employees rather than laying them off) and likely wasn't being used for meme stocks.
I was reading through the WSB Reddit sub at the time. There was a lot of chatter there about people using their personal stimulus payments for investing in meme stocks.
I also spent a lot of time on Reddit subs checking chatter on PPP and EIDL. Of the two, my guess is there was a lot more widespread fraud (more people involved, but with smaller disbursements) with the EIDL. The EIDL was giving out 1K per employee (up to 10K) for anyone who claimed they were business owners. That didn't have to be paid back.
