$200 billion in corporate aid fraud, this is the point revealed by a report published Tuesday by the supervisory body of the agency in charge of SMEs in the United States.

More than $200 billion may have been paid fraudulently to small and medium-sized American businesses from economic support programs implemented during the pandemic. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), this sum represents “at least 17%” of the total 1.2 trillion dollars paid out through two programs intended to support SMEs during the Covid-19 pandemic

This new estimate is much higher than that made at the end of 2022, which estimated the total amount of fraud detected at around 100 billion dollars. However, some of the sums paid fraudulently have been recovered, $30 billion according to the report, which notes that more than a thousand people have been indicted and more than 800 people arrested, 500 of whom have been convicted. However, several dozen investigations are still ongoing.