FVC2146. Pandemic Fueled Prosecutions: The Rise of White Collar Criminal and Regulatory Enforcement on Main Street USA

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress authorized the largest stimulus relief package in U.S. history, offering hundreds of billions of dollars to businesses suffering economic hardships through a variety of initiatives including the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, Provider Relief Fund, Restaurant Revitalization Fund, Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program, and the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Federal investigators and prosecutors have mobilized quickly to combat fraud in connection with these programs and to ensure that relief funds were disbursed, and spent, properly. This session will explore the fast-moving landscape of pandemic-fueled investigations and prosecutions, with a focus on the early criminal prosecutions, anticipated enforcement trends, and identifying areas of risk for recipients of federal aid. The panel will also address the increasing use of civil penalty statutes such as the False Claims Act and FIRREA, and the key role of whistleblowers in rooting out possible fraud. In the face of this unprecedented wave of federal scrutiny of businesses receiving COVID-19 relief, the opportunities for white-collar criminal defense lawyers and forensic accountants are greater than at any point in recent history.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Explore the various areas ripe for criminal and regulatory inquiry after the multiple economic stimulus packages passed by Congress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
• 2. Explore the demographic of an investigative target for pandemic related fraud looks like, and why it is dramatically different this time around;
• 3. Understand civil liability under the FCA and FIRREA statutes and the significant role that whistleblowers and qui tam litigation will play;
• 4. Highlight the greater than ever synergies between forensic accountants and white collar defense lawyers in the wake of the pandemic; and
• 5. Predict future trends as the United States experiences what may be the largest criminal and regulatory investigation in the nation’s history.