09/04/2020
SBA Scam Alert from LHBA Member Geep Moore
Dear Marty,
I need to let you know of a situation involving the SBA (Small Business Ad.) that has affected me and at least 16 other businesses in the state that I am aware of.
Two weeks ago today I got a letter from the SBA stating that a PPP loan received on a dormant LLC that I have was having the loan deferred until 7/1/2021, but that I would owe for interest. Since we did not make this loan I called the SBA and found out that a 96.5K loan was taken out against my CAMS,LLC applied for on 7/2/20 and money deposited on 7/5/2020 using my social security number and the Bank Of America, that I do not have an account with. Everything but our address was bogus and had the SBA done simple checks they would have known this. We have alerted all of our accounts and an investigator with the Sherriff’s office is working on it. Today the detective informed me that currently they are aware of 16 other companies in the state that have been compromised by the same individual (China Woods) using the same Bank of America account. Had the SBA not sent a notice to my office of record, I would not know about this until something showed up on my credit report. My report was run last January, but it was normal.
We need to let as many know about this as possible to alert them to keep a vigil on their accounts. This was way to easily done with no cross checking. My banker told me that in their process that red flags would have gone up immediately with their cross checks. We are lucky at this point that we have been able to isolate this compromise without any expense and only a lot of hours on the telephone.
Should someone give feedback on this, I need to past it on to the detectives. To date we have filed notice with the SBA, the SS admin., the FBI, etc. we have also alerted NAHB and will be sending this info to them as well. The detective hopes that I can get more info to help him. I told him this has the potential to reach 140K businesses and way more individuals.
This scam was easy and has the potential to grab a hold of a lot of individuals. Please take the necessary precautions in your business and pass the word.
Geep Moore
George "Geep" Moore, Jr.
CR, CMR, CAPS, CGR, GMB, CGP, GMR
Moore-Built Construction & Restoration, Inc.
Forensic Construction Consulting
523 Oil Field Rd. ~ Elm Grove, LA 71051
318-742-9474 (office) ~ 318-455-8598 (cell) ~ 318-742-7841 (fax)
www.mbcrinc.com
