The federal government is spending trillions of dollars to ease the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on American citizens and businesses. Along with such unprecedented expenditures under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, commonly known as the CARES Act, comes the risk (really the certainty) that bad actors are taking advantage of the current crisis and engaging in fraudulent conduct to unjustly enrich themselves from stimulus funds that are not rightfully theirs. When they do so, they defraud American taxpayers and rob those who need financial support the most.

Take, for example, the Paycheck Protection Program, a signature CARES Act program administered by the Small Business Administration. The PPP aims to help small businesses keep up with payroll, keep their employees employed, and cover other eligible expenses through forgivable loans. If loan applicants knowingly provide false or misleading information in order to obtain PPP loans, they are defrauding the SBA and stealing funds from eligible businesses.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) is committed to ferreting out and stopping this type of conduct—not years down the line, but now, in as close to real-time as possible, so that stimulus funds get to those who need them most, when they need them most. Partnering with the newly created special inspector general for pandemic recovery and other law enforcement agents and agencies, we will use every tool in our toolbox—not only criminal prosecutions, but also civil penalties and damages actions—to stop these bad actors and return money to the federal fisc.

The public can play a key part in that effort. Two of the civil statutes that my office enforces—the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989—can serve a critical role in stopping stimulus fund-related fraud by borrowers, and both provide ways that members of the public may report fraud and potentially share in recoveries.

Broadly speaking, the FCA enables the Department of Justice to obtain treble damages and penalties against those who defraud governmental programs by making "false claims" regarding their product or services in exchange for government payment. Interestingly, the FCA was borne out of President Abraham Lincoln's Union Army being defrauded by dishonest mule salesmen during the Civil War. FIRREA allows the Department of Justice to bring civil penalty actions against those who violate various criminal statutes, including a statute that punishes borrowers who make false statements for the purpose of obtaining SBA loans.

Both the FCA and FIRREA provide powerful tools for combating fraud on the SBA by applicants for PPP loans. At the same time, the PPP rules are new and dynamic, and the SBA has taken steps to provide safe harbor for borrowers who applied for and received PPP loans based on a misunderstanding or misapplication of the required certifications. EDVA will exercise similar discretion in our enforcement actions even as we vigilantly guard the public fisc and ensure that the available money goes to those who are eligible.

In recent years, EDVA has expanded its Affirmative Civil Enforcement practice so that we can more effectively enforce statutes like the FCA and FIRREA. In recent weeks, we have specifically tasked assistant United States attorneys in our ACE Unit with enforcing both statutes to protect federal funds expended under CARES Act programs.

So, how can the public help our efforts? If you have firsthand knowledge or insight into how CARES Act funds are being expended, there are opportunities to report suspected fraud. If you become aware of borrowers who may be ineligible for PPP loans or provided false information in their loan applications, there are avenues for you to report any suspected fraud.

You can report suspected fraud by contacting the special inspector general for pandemic relief, the newly constituted pandemic response accountability committee or the inspector general for an affected agency, like the SBA or the Treasury Department.

Alternatively, you can work with an attorney to file a qui tam lawsuit under the FCA or a declaration under the Financial Institutions Anti-Fraud Enforcement Act of 1990. Under the FCA's whistleblower provision, members of the public who file a successful qui tam lawsuit in federal court may be eligible for a share of the recovery. Under FIAFEA, where members of the public file declarations with the Department of Justice about known misconduct, and those declarations give rise to an action for civil penalties under FIRREA, the declarants have certain rights, including rights to a share of any funds recovered by the federal government.

Our office, with our law enforcement partners, stand ready to investigate and prosecute those who engage in fraud to profit from this pandemic. Please help us in that effort.

G. Zachary Terwilliger is the 62nd U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. As the chief federal law enforcement officer in the Eastern District of Virginia, he oversees approximately 300 public servants. Terwilliger previously served as associate deputy attorney general and chief of staff in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He was also selected as one of NLJ's 40 under 40 Rising Stars.